Aon New Zealand U17s take down China for first win at FIBA World Cup

The Aon New Zealand Under 17s have secured their first win at the FIBA World Cup in Argentina on Sunday morning, beating China 62-57.

New Zealand jumped out to a 17-8 lead after the first quarter, and it was their hot start that helped set them up for the remainder of the game.

It was easily the teams best performance so far, as China struggled to keep up with New Zealands hot shooting. They shot 44.8 per cent from the floor and were 7-of-16 from 3-point range.

Mitchell Dance followed up his 30-point performance against Serbia with another fine showing today. He finished with 23 points, seven rebounds and four assists in 35 minutes, shooting 10-of-21 from the field and 2-of-5 from three.

Marvin Williams-Dunn had his best game at the World Cup, totaling 17 points, three rebounds, four assists and three steals on 6-of-9 shooting and 4-of-5 from three. Anzac Rissetto added eight points and eight rebounds in his 26 minutes of work.

Head Coach Dave Bublitz was thrilled with the overall performance by the boys.

"Boys started really positively and put them on the back foot early. We never lost the lead, but China clawed it back at the end of the game.

"The team finally got a decent field goal percentage which helped. Marvins shooting was massive for us.

"It was on the defensive end where we managed to make a real difference. A real grind that the boys can be proud of," said Bublitz.

New Zealand will play their final game in Argentina tomorrow morning at 4:15am NZT. They square off against the Philippines for the 13th seed at the tournament.

All games at the FIBA Under 17 World Cup are being live streamed on the FIBA Youtube channel, or you can watch live on the Basketball New Zealand Facebook page.

The full box score for New Zealands game against China can be found HERE.

More information:

- See FIBAs tournament website here: https://www.fiba.basketball/world/u17/2018

- More basketball news at www.nz.basketball and Basketball New Zealands social media channels: @BasketballNZ Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

- This story has been automatically published using a media release from Basketball New Zealand