Basketball: Tournament win for Tall Blacks

Guard Kirk Penney again led the way for New Zealand, topscoring with 30 points. Photo / Getty Images

The New Zealand men's basketball team have pulled off a rare international tournament win by beating Russia in the Stankovic Cup final in China.

The Tall Blacks secured their third upset win in as many days overnight (NZT) to topple Russia 80-77 at Guangzhou.

The result was a reversal of four days ago when Russia narrowly beat the New Zealanders in their opening match of the tournament.

The Tall Blacks recovered from that setback to then beat hosts China and Angola to advance to the final of a four nation tournament being used as preparation for the 2012 Olympic Games qualifying against Australia next month.

The victory earned the Tall Blacks and Basketball New Zealand $US30,000 ($NZ36,740), of which the players get the majority share.

"It's a great win. We're stoked," Tall Blacks assistant coach Chris Tupu said.

"We made some improvement in the tournament after initially losing to the Russians and that's a good thing.

"It was a tough game for us and a tough tournament. We've got lots to work on, but we're very happy to have four games in four days, winning three in a row."

Guard Kirk Penney again led the way for New Zealand, topscoring with 30 points after compiling 15 in the first half on the back of three three-pointers.

Mika Vukona had 12 by halftime and 15 total while Tom Abercrombie contributed 16.

"Kirk is the main scorer, there's no secret in that, but it's the other things around the court that contribute," Tupu said.

"We need his points but the hustle all over the court is important. There's people chipping in across the board. It's just the start for us leading up to and building towards Australia next month."

The Tall Blacks started strongly to lead 17-9 early on before the Russians had a late run of nine points to finish the first quarter 18-17 ahead.

New Zealand were on fire despite a large number of turnovers in the second period when Penney shot well and Vukona proved to be a real problem for the Russians, even against the 2.15m Anatoly Kashirov.

They outscored the Russians 28-18 in the second quarter to lead 45-36 at halftime thanks to a top overall shooting performance from the floor as they had a 65.4 percent return as well as five from six in three-pointers.

The game lost structure in the second half with some niggling tactics and real physical play, as the world 11th-ranked Russian team constantly talked to the referees and pleaded for fouls.

Russian managed to win the third quarter 19-16, but the Tall Blacks were ahead 61-55 going into the fourth and managed to hang on.

Penney and Abercrombie were named in the tournament All-Star five.

The New Zealanders now head to Italy for a training camp before a four nation tournament in Macedonia and another in Turkey.

Result:-

Stankovic Cup final: New Zealand 80 (Kirk Penney 30, Tom Abercrombie 16, Mika Vukona 15) Russia 77. Halftime: 28-18.

- NZPA