Basketball: Penney buzzer-beater sinks Korea

Kirk Penney won the game for New Zealand with a last second three-pointer. Photo / Getty Images

The Tall Blacks eked out a tough road win in Seoul last night with a Kirk Penney buzzer beating three pointer seeing the New Zealanders home 71-70 in front of a partisan home crowd.

As has been the case throughout the five game series it was a game of runs with neither team ever saying die in a heart stopping clash. The Koreans came back with a strong third quarter performance after they trailed by 11 points at halftime and as many as 14 early in that third quarter, storming back into the game so well they led 50-49 at the three quarter break.

The final stanza was largely a one possession affair with the Koreans the ones to edge in front more often than not. But in a frantic final minute the Tall Blacks missed two good looks from downtown to edge in front before an acrobatic Tom Abercrombie put back after a Corey Webster 3 rimmed out left Korea in front by one point with 15 seconds to play.

The Tall Blacks fouled and Korea made just one of the two freebies and with 2.3 seconds on the clock and possession, Nenad Vucinic called time out and gathered the troops to run a play. And what a play it was and what a player to have on the end of it. Kirk Penney showed nerves of steel as he lined up the three with the buzzer ringing around the stadium as the ball arced towards the hoop, followed by the dreaded (for the Koreans) sound of ball through net and the win was New Zealand's to savour.

Tall Blacks captain Mika Vukona was delighted with the character shown by his team in the face of a noisy home crowd and some tough calls.

"That was a great finish for us, I can't think of a better player to have the ball in those trusted hands than Kirk, he was able to up-fake and get that three off, we battled hard the whole game and there was a lot of relief on our end.

"This was a great way to test our resolve out there, things didn't go our way but everybody hung tight, they are one hell of a team and never give up so it was nice to play our game. This has happened all series, in Wellington, in Auckland, these guys never give up and that is a great buildup for us, when we get to the World's no one is going to give us a second chance so yes there is relief but there are a lot of things we can be happy about from that game."

The Tall Blacks again rested big men Casey Frank and Nick Horvath as both continued their recoveries from injuries. The team now head to China to continue their preparation for the FIBA World Cup in Spain at the end of August, with the road to Spain including visits to Lithuania and Serbia before a final camp on arrival in Spain.