An Alley Oop To International Hoops #5
Hello, meet Jonas Valanciunas. He's good at this basketball thing.
Nah who cares about him, meet Corey Webster! He got the Tall Blacks back in the game against Lithuania, providing fans with hope of the almost unthinkable, before Valanciunas basically took over proceedings.
Lithuania took the bickies, winning 76-71 which sadly means no more World Cup ball for the TB's. But instead of going down like a sack of shit, the TB's went down swinging and came close to an upset as Webster's 26 points sparked a kiwi comeback after being down by 15 ... they even led at one stage in the fourth.
It made for a kinda stink end to a pretty stink weekend for kiwi sports fans, but the way the TB's stayed in the contest was admirable and they showed signs of what they can do. Unfortunately they couldn't do it consistently enough and they had no answer for Lithuania's power and skill in the paint, and in trying to match the physicality we just ended up fouling.
It makes sense that the TB's didn't start too flash, given they didn't really kick off the tournament in top gear either. We hold this place as the underdog or battler in world basketball, but there's this fight and determination within the TB's which ensures that this is a bitter pill to swallow. At the end of the day, the kiwis came up against a better team (Lithuania are ranked 4th in the world by FIBA... NZ is 19th) with a bloke who was on a mission but they definitely did us proud as well as making sure the world took them a bit more seriously.
For the record Valanciunas, a starter for the Toronto Raptors, had 22 points, 13 rebounds and 3 blocks.