With Ili benched for the second half due to injury, Egypt surged back in the third, with El Gendy leading a 13-2 run that brought the Egyptians to within three points with four minutes left. Delany answered the call for New Zealand, scoring seven straight to help build a seven-point buffer heading into the final frame, with Le’afa adding a quick six points and a pair of timely steals.
Te Rangi came alive in the fourth, scoring five straight to briefly push the Tall Blacks’ lead back up to 12. But it would be short-lived, as another strong push from the Egyptians gave them an unlikely one-point lead with two and a half minutes left.
A huge corner triple from Jordan Ngatai helped to keep things even late, and Te Rangi iced it for the Kiwis at the line, making a pair of huge free throws under pressure. The win saw some statistical improvements with the Tall Blacks limiting their turnovers to 12, the lowest number in their five World Cup games.
While their 20 assists from 26 made field goals demonstrated a willingness to pass the ball, the New Zealand side were outshot 46 per cent to 41 per cent on the night, shooting just 7-25 from beyond the arc.
Following the game, Delany said that the win saw key players step up at the right time and make big plays - singling out Le’afa for his efforts on both sides of the ball.
“It’s a collective effort, we’ve got different guys step up during the week and make shots, Izayah is extremely talented and I’m happy for him and the other guys like Reuben who have stepped up,” Delany said.
“It was nice to hit some shots with him today, I just wanted everyone to stay aggressive the whole game, the whole tournament, so it was nice.”
Coach Pero Cameron reflected back on the lessons learnt from the Mexico game and the Tall Blacks’ need to come out with energy against Egypt.
“A great finish and a positive for us and a real tough game. Coming into this tournament we knew there were no easy games and we set our sights high and had high expectations,” says Cameron.
“You can see when we get close and don’t achieve want we want, it affects us and ultimately it was the next turnaround game [against Mexico] that hurt us - so we made it a point that we wouldn’t be low on energy again today. Hats off to my players for putting in that effort when the game came down to the wire.”
Delany looked back on a rollercoaster of a World Cup tournament and the lessons he and his teammates have learnt from it.
“It was a positive end to a tough World Cup against a strong Egyptian side [tonight], but overall it wasn’t the results during the week that we wanted.
“The Tall Blacks and New Zealand we always compete with the superpower [countries] around the world, we say that a lot and we did that this week - my mission and our mission was to push that further and not accept just competing with the heavyweights, we wanted to come in and win and get to the second round. We fell short of that, but we learned a lot and we kept pushing.
“With Covid, everything over the past four years has felt like a very different group to my last World Cup and this is a great thing for the future - I believe a lot of guys here that weren’t around even a few years ago, they’re taking these experiences and growing relationships with other guys on and off the court, which is huge.
“I reinforce that message that we can compete against great teams, and just having our guys have experiences against the Greeces and the Team USAs and the world, it’s huge. There’s a lot of things we can learn and grow from.”
This is the end of New Zealand’s participation in this Fiba World Cup. Finishing with a 2-3 record, New Zealand now wait to find out whether they have done enough to be awarded a place at the Olympic Qualifier Series in June next year. They need to be one of the three highest Asia/Oceania ranked teams in this World Cup to secure their place.
