KEY POINTS:
Canada 69
New Zealand 77
The New Zealand men's basketball team surged to a second successive win in their Olympic qualifying build-up in Canada yesterday, thanks to a game-high 22 points from shooting guard Kirk Penney.
The Tall Blacks beat world No 17 Canada 77-69 to end
the Jack Donohue International Classic tournament in Toronto with a 2-1 record. They had earlier beaten Lebanon following a first-up 27-point loss to the Canadians.
Penney led all scorers with 11 points at halftime, including a perfect three-for-three on three-point attempts, while captain Pero Cameron had nine points and four rebounds, and backup centre Nick Horvath seven points.
New Zealand led by 12 points with two minutes 33 seconds remaining in the half before a flurry of missed shots and turnovers led to three three-pointers from Canadian guards Jermaine Anderson and Rowan Barrett.
This left the Tall Blacks in front just 39-36 at the main break.
Canada scored 24 consecutive points straddling halftime, going from 22-39 down to 46-39 up in a seven-minute span.
The Tall Blacks answered with an 18-2 run over the next six minutes, including 12 straight points to take a 57-48 lead as Penney, Lindsay Tait and Horvath carried the scoring load.
In a game of scoring floods and droughts, the Tall Blacks led by as many as 15 points in the first quarter and 17 points in the second quarter, while the Canadians led by seven points early in the third.
Trailing by six points after three quarters, the Canadians were able to pull within a point at 61-62 before a 10-1 run from the Tall Blacks, including points from Cameron, forward Mika Vukona and Penney, in the middle stages of the quarter gave them a 10-point gap.
"We really wanted to get back to the basics of Tall Blacks basketball," Tall Blacks coach Nenad Vucinic said. "That's really gritty, low-scoring games, good defence, and we played like that today."
It was New Zealand's first win over Canada since 2002.
New Zealand now head to Slovenia for matches against the hosts plus Puerto Rico and Iran before travelling to Athens for the Olympic Games qualifying tournament.
They need to finish among the top three of 12 nations in Athens to join the New Zealand women's team in Beijing next month.
New Zealand 77 (Kirk Penney 22, Lindsay Tait 13, Nick Horvath 12, Pero Cameron 11) Canada 69 (Rowan Barrett 18). Halftime: 39-36.