听It was a hot, 39 degree morning in Jeddah as the New Zealand Tall Blacks got their FIBA Asia Cup campaign underway against Iraq.
Mojave King knocked down the first bucket on the game for the Kiwi鈥檚, as both sides started well.
It was the guards who started hot for the Tall Blacks, with King, Taylor Britt and Flynn Cameron combining for the team鈥檚 first 11 points.
Iraq stuck around for the first five minutes of the game, Ali Ismael with four quick points for them keeping them level with the Tall Blacks throughout the opening parts of this one.
It was a Carlin Davison to Ben Gold alley-oop that saw momentum rapidly swing the way of the Tall Blacks.
The Kiwi鈥檚 would kick it up a notch on the defensive end, keeping Iraq scoreless for a four minute period and opening up a 24-16 quarter time buffer.
Britt would continue to get to the cup with ease at the start of the second, knocking down a pair of free throws within ten seconds of the quarter starting.
Iraq鈥檚 Diar Ahmed Abdul Allah Abdul Allah knocked down back to back triples as he looked to inject a bit of fire into the Iraqi offense.
An inject he did. Iraq would claw themselves back into the game as they cut the Tall Black lead down to just five points, with a tick over 3:30 to play in the second quarter.
They鈥檇 cut the lead to just one before Britt second triple of the game would extend the lead back to four.
Once again, the Iraqi sharpshooter Ahmed Abdul would score five straight for the men in green, and Iraq would nudge into the lead just before halftime.
A bank shot three out the gates from Iraq鈥檚 Ihab Al-Zuhairi tipped off the second half, and Taylor Britt picked up where he left off in the first half 鈥� hitting one of his textbook mid-range pull up jumper, as the Tall Blacks looked claw their way back into this one.
After a Tohi Smith-Milner floater and seven straight from their point guard, Britt, 听the Tall Blacks snuck back into the lead.
Jordan Ngatai knocked down his first triple of the game, and Thulfiqar Hammoodi knocked down a heavily contested triple for Iraq in response, again, the Iraqi鈥檚 not willing to back down.
Carlin Davison鈥檚 putback at the end of the third quarter saw the Kiwi鈥檚 re-take a slender two point lead heading into the last ten minutes of action in Jeddah.
Smith-Milner opened the fourth with five straight points for the Tall Blacks, before Taylor Britt鈥檚 beautiful up and under took him to 19 points on the night.
A Mojave King triple put the Tall Blacks up 8, and turnovers began to mount for Iraq.
The Tall Blacks really put the hammer down in the final five minutes of action, Carlin Davison鈥檚 thunderous putback dunk and Smith-Milner鈥檚 third triple of the quarter extending the Tall Blacks lead out to 12.
Closing on a 20-7 run to finish proceedings, filled with some showstopping highlights and improved three point shooting, the Tall Blacks solidified their first win of FIBA Asia Cup 2025, a 100 鈥� 78 win over Iraq.
Coach Judd Flavell pleased with the Tall Blacks much improved second half.
鈥淚 first wanted to acknowledge Iraq and the way that they came out and played. We were half a step late, our defence wasn鈥檛 good enough. That gave them some good looks from the outside.鈥�
鈥淔or our group in the second half, we were in a grind. We wanted to keep the pace high, so I feel like that sort out rewarded us down the stretch there in the fourth quarter where we managed to get on top and obviously the scoreboard was in our favour from then on.鈥�
Building on that tremendous fourth quarter effort where the Tall Blacks outscored Iraq 37-17, will be important ahead of the team鈥檚 next game against the Philippines.
Taylor Britt noting the importance of having that level of intensity from the get go.
鈥淚 think we responded quite well, especially in that fourth quarter. Just putting out that level of intensity鈥� that needs to be there from the first quarter of the game and going forward. But I guess it鈥檚 a positive that we can do it for one quarter, but we鈥檝e got to do it for four.鈥�
The Tall Blacks will have a rest day tomorrow before their next game against the Philippines in the early hours of Friday morning.
