JTB's Pre Season for World Champs

The New Zealand Junior Tall Blacks have fallen 58-50 to the Melbourne Tigers U23 squad in the youth league
1 final at the Big V Pre-season Tournament in Melbourne on Monday night.

Up by two points after the first eight-minute quarter and by a point
at halftime, the JTBs, hampered by foul trouble and injury, faded on
the run home, relinquishing the lead for good after a 17-10 third
period.

The forward line, already weakened with the unavailability of Tom Rowe and injuries in Melbourne to Tipene Friday and Sam King, struggled to contain the Tigers big down low.

Centre Rob Loe and forwards David Beck and Morgan Nathan hit foul trouble early and all had to take seats after collecting their
fourth personals in the third quarter, meaning King, suffering a back
strain, had to play centre and swingman Riki Buckrell had to switch to power forward.

“It’s a bit disappointing but in saying that I think the boys still played pretty well,” JTBs head coach Kenny McFadden said.

“One of the problems that we had in this game was we had all three
of our big men had foul trouble in the first half and had four fouls in
the third quarter, so it was tough to match-up against their size.

“The Melbourne Tigers are a very organised team, running the shuffle
offence and they’ve got some good players in there. Don’t get me wrong,
we had our chances.

“Some fatigue set in and we didn’t have the step in the fourth
quarter. This was the sixth game of the tournament for us but with the
injuries and foul trouble we didn’t have the right players in there to
do the job.”

The JTBs finished the tournament with a 4-2 record and will next get
together for their third preparation camp at Porirua’s Te Rauparaha
Arena at Easter, April 9-12.

“It gave us a lot to think about and the positives and negatives of
individuals. Some played very well and others have some things to work
on, which are all technical.

“A lot of fitness work needs to be done and we need to go back and
test them. We will give them workout programmes and we will assess them
in April. I said to the guys that that could decide who makes the team,
who has followed that fitness programme and improved.”

Big V Pre-season Tournament

Melbourne Sports & Aquatic Centre

Melbourne Tigers U23 58 Junior Tall Blacks 50