Three players with local connections have been named among the former Tall Blacks and NBL stars in the HoopNation New Zealand Selection team to play Malaysia at Springvale Stadium on July 25.
The team will face the Malaysians in the third game of the six match tour, and again inHawera at the TSB Hub the following night.
This includes Matt Te Huna, Akira Marsters and Matangirei Hipango.
Te Huna, who has Whanganui family, is a veteran of the Manawatu Jets and Hawke's Bay Hawks in the NBL, finishing his time with the Hawks after last season due to commuting from Manawatu.
Marsters is a former Nelson Giant in the NBL and New Zealand under-23 captain, while Hipango has been based at Manukura School in Palmerston North, which made last year's national secondary schools championship playoffs.
Joining the team are former Tall Blacks Paora Winitana and Everard Bartlett, both also veterans of the NZ Breakers and other Australian NBL teams.
Others to watch are Taranaki Mountainairs player Emmerson Potts-Broughton, Alabama's former multiple NBL winner Kareem Johnson and Tauranga's Jayden Bezzant, a former New Zealand under-18 representative on scholarship to a college in Idaho.
