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With veteran shooting guard
Phill Jones sidelined by a knee injury, Penney
stepped into the void for his second 30-point-plus performance in the series
last night to spearhead
Last night's victory gave
the Tall Blacks a 4-1 series win and coach Tab Baldwin will now set about the
task of cutting his squad down to 12 before they head off to
Penney's 34 points last night included six three-pointers, two of them in a 10-point explosion in the third quarter when the touring side were still hovering menacingly.
Penney's development over
the past three years has taken place largely at the
He was not available for last
year's world championship qualifying series against
These days he is a
considerably upgraded version of the skinny kid who first disappeared to the
"What we are seeing is
Kirk emerging as a prominent weapon in our arsenal,"
"His confidence in that role and the team's confidence in him are growing in leaps and bounds."
Even though they had already lost the series after dropping the fourth match in Nelson on Wednesday, the Hungarians came out stronger, building an early nine-point lead behind captain Erno Sitku's 13 points in the first quarter.
Ironically, the Tall Blacks caught up through an impressive display from the free-throw line. In their only loss of the series in Palmerston North, they shot just 45 percent from the charity stripe against the Hungarians' 90 percent.
By the final game, the Kiwis had raised their success rate to 81 percent (22 from 27) as their opponents could manage just 68 percent (17 from 25).
They shot half of those freebies in the second quarter, including eight in a row, and reached the break 55-54 ahead.
Penney found a willing ally in hometown favourite Terrence Lewis, in only his second appearance in the series.
His first had been just
three minutes in game one, where he admitted to being nervous wearing the black
singlet for the first time in
"I was more
comfortable here (
"I'm always proud to play every game, but especially here.
"I feel more intense here, doing the haka in front of my family and friends."
Lewis was also conscious
that, like his team-mates, he was playing for a berth in the squad for
In his case, he was competing against three other American-born players for one naturalised spot in the team.
"It's up to the coach to decide. But I know they (team-mates) were supporting me, just as I was supporting them throughout the series.
Lewis was also hot from the perimeter, landing five from 10 attempts from beyond the arc in his 20 points.
Entering the final quarter 80-74 ahead, the New Zealanders put the foot down to take that period 30-14 for an emphatic result.
"I always knew it
would be a hard decision and no one made it any easier for me tonight,"
"The decision will be really hard because I have to tell people I really like as people that the opportunity is not there for them now.
"This series has been one of the highlights in a career full of highlights and it's such a downer for me to now have to make a negative decision."
NZPA
