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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine

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Speaker 1: from News Talks EDB.

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Speaker 2: Basketball because the Tour Blacks have started the third window

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Speaker 2: of the Asia Cup Basketball qualifiers by dismantling their hosts

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Speaker 2: Hong Kong ninety two to fifty one, stops.

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Speaker 3: Inside, when goes up, throws it down for you with

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Speaker 3: some neat Will's passion. That is a professional performance by

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Speaker 3: New Zealand. They shot the ball incredibly well at times,

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Speaker 3: but defensively exceptional imposed themselves on Hong Kong shiner.

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Speaker 2: At ninety two to fifty one. Jordan Nati top scoring

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Speaker 2: for New Zealand with twenty points. So New Zealander back

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Speaker 2: home now they play the Philippines this afternoon. It's Spark

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Speaker 2: Arena in Auckland, three o'clock tip off. Both sides have

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Speaker 2: won four and lost one of their matches and their campaigns.

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Speaker 2: They sit together on nine points to all. Blacks. Assistant

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Speaker 2: coach Michael Fitchett joins his heead of this game. First

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Speaker 2: of all, Michael, how happy were you and the coaching

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Speaker 2: staff with what played out in Hong Kong on Yeah?

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Speaker 4: Pretty happy, you know, to go and go away and

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Speaker 4: get a road win. By forty odd points as a

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Speaker 4: way satisfying, but we had a bit of a shaky

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Speaker 4: start defensively, We went really on the ball, so we

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Speaker 4: did have some feedback to give to the guys, which

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Speaker 4: is always nice.

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Speaker 2: After a forty point one two absolutely well. The defensive

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Speaker 2: side of things looks on paper anyway pretty good twenty

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Speaker 2: four turnovers forced. But was it something that the team

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Speaker 2: grew into across the game the defensive performance.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely. We gave up twenty one points in the

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Speaker 4: first quarter, which for us to give up to a

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Speaker 4: team like Hong Kong as too many. But we really

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Speaker 4: tightened the screws in the second, third, and fourth quarters.

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Speaker 4: So we're happy with the response. Just the start. If

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Speaker 4: we do that against the Philippines will be in we'll

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Speaker 4: be in a bit of strife early on.

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Speaker 2: What about in an offensive scenes, did you achieve what

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Speaker 2: you wanted to?

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Speaker 4: We did? We did with the sort of the focus

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Speaker 4: of the three days or the three practices over two

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Speaker 4: days leading into the game. When once we got up

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Speaker 4: to Hong Kong was really more about the offensive side

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Speaker 4: of the ball, and the guys were really good. We

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Speaker 4: kept it simple. We shot the ball really well, obviously

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Speaker 4: Jordan Natai six from seven from three, but we did

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Speaker 4: a good job getting to the room as well, and

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Speaker 4: Taylor Brett really ran the show for us. So we're

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Speaker 4: offensive side of the ball were pretty you know, a

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Speaker 4: lot of a lot of positives there.

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Speaker 2: So Box has ticked against Hong Kong. You mentioned the

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Speaker 2: Philippines there, What what do you expect from them and

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Speaker 2: how how much bigger of a challenge are they going

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Speaker 2: to be?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's a different kettle of fish, different standard

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Speaker 4: of opposition for sure. We lost them in November. And

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Speaker 4: their style of players super physical. They've got a couple

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Speaker 4: of really big, big bodies in there and even their

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Speaker 4: guards very very physical players really crash, crashed the boards

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Speaker 4: and look for those rebounds. So we put ourselves on

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Speaker 4: physicality and we got this isn't a word, but we

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Speaker 4: got out physical in November. So we'll be looking at

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Speaker 4: that one around first and foremost. But then they've got

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Speaker 4: a very talented naturalized player justin Brownlee. He had thirty

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Speaker 4: nine points against Chinese Taipei last night, so slowing him

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Speaker 4: down is going to be another another major factor for us.

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Speaker 2: I'm going to add that word to the vocabulary out

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Speaker 2: for the court. I think we can. I think I

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Speaker 2: think we can make it a word. I've got no

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Speaker 2: problem with that. I know exactly what you mean. You've

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Speaker 2: already qualified for the Asian Cup, of course, so is

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Speaker 2: the goal to finish top of the pool to get

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Speaker 2: a better seating at the Asian Cup? Is that what

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Speaker 2: we're looking at?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, it is, it is so they we can, we

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Speaker 4: can if we win. Chinese Taypey did us a bit

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Speaker 4: of a favor by beating the Philippines last night or

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Speaker 4: two nights ago when whenever it was, and we don't

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Speaker 4: need to win by a margin. Now we win, and

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Speaker 4: we top our pool, which obviously gives us a slightly

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Speaker 4: easier path through the Asia Cup, which gives us which

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Speaker 4: then rolls onto World Cup qualifying campaign. So they all matter.

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Speaker 4: But to be honest, we we're playing in front of

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Speaker 4: a big house at Spark Arena, so we want to

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Speaker 4: get that one, get there one for all our fans

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Speaker 4: are going to be there.

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Speaker 2: And you had a couple of debutants in the squad

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Speaker 2: Hawks bay Hawks youngster Jackson Ball just sixteen years old,

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Speaker 2: Canterbury Rams rising star Thomas Isaac, both in your squad

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Speaker 2: for the first time. Were were you able to get

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Speaker 2: minutes for those two guys?

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Speaker 4: We were That's the beauty of going up, you know,

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Speaker 4: playing a team like Hong Kong. We could really spread

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Speaker 4: the minutes. Really really impressed with both of those guys.

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Speaker 4: You know, Jackson Ball sixteen years old. Like you say, like,

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Speaker 4: I don't know what you're doing when you're sixteen pinty,

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Speaker 4: but I certainly wasn't representing my country and making the

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Speaker 4: most of that opportunity. Was he was fantastic. And Tooma

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Speaker 4: Isaac actually, the eighteen year old from Chrissyich, he he

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Speaker 4: really came out and turned our defense around a little bit,

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Speaker 4: you know, really really got after the ball in the

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Speaker 4: full court and put their energy and effort they were

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Speaker 4: looking for out there. So really really pleased with both

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Speaker 4: of those kids. Bruck a head.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I've seen a bit of Jackson Ball actually at

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Speaker 2: a couple of regional tournaments out of APR boys. Of course,

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Speaker 2: see a big block. He put a big block, and

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Speaker 2: I saw some social media footage of you know, during

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Speaker 2: your tall Blacks game. He could be anything, couldn't He.

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Speaker 4: The world's oyster. The world is truly his oyster. He

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Speaker 4: does the simple things really well. He's got good size strengths,

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Speaker 4: shoots the ball very very well. Just one of just

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Speaker 4: one of a number of our really exciting junior group

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Speaker 4: at the moment. You know, we've got a we've got

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Speaker 4: a really a nice bubble of kids coming through, so

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Speaker 4: it's exciting to see them put on the Black jerseys

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Speaker 4: at a young age.

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Speaker 2: And at the other end of the experienced scale, Cory

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Speaker 2: Webster went to the series on ninety nine games for

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Speaker 2: New Zealand. Presumably you got him, got him one hundred

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Speaker 2: the other night, did you.

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Speaker 4: Well, Actually he didn't come up to Hong Kong with us.

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Speaker 4: He was we elected to rest his body a little

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Speaker 4: bit before the Philippines game. So he's going to raise

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Speaker 4: his hundred. So it should be a fun.

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Speaker 2: Occasion, good stuff. We'll look forward to that, Mike, thanks

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Speaker 2: for joining us on game day. Mike will Figit, assistant

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Speaker 2: coach of the Tour Blacks, who take on the Philippines

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Speaker 2: this afternoon at Spark Arena in Auckland. A bit of

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Speaker 2: social media around saying that that game has sold out.

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Speaker 2: Philippines basketball, it's their national sport, so they'll be I

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Speaker 2: think a number of Auckland based Philippines fans there. But yes, no,

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Speaker 2: I've had confirmation that game has sold out. Good stuff, terrific.

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Speaker 2: We don't get the chance to see the tour Blacks

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Speaker 2: a lot at home, do we? So good to know

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Speaker 2: that when that opportunity presents itself, that people will turn out.

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Speaker 2: And for Corey Webster, that'll be nice for him to

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Speaker 2: bring up one hundred games in the Black singlet in

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Speaker 2: front of a big and presumably raucous home crowd.

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Speaker 1: For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live

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Speaker 1: to News Talk zed B weekends from midday, or follow

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