Taylor Britt: Tall Blacks Point Guard previews the Asia Cup semi-final clash against China

The Tall Blacks have survived a stern examination of their Asia Cup basketball title ambitions to beat Lebanon 90-86 for a place in the semi-finals. 

New Zealand's come back from a 20-point deficit at quarter time and will now play China in the last four. 

Point Guard Taylor Britt joined Piney ahead of their big match against China.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Fine
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Edb Tall Blacks are into the semifinals at Basketball's Asia
Cup in Jedda, Saudi Arabia. To get there, they came
back from a thirty to twelve quarter time deficit to
beat Lebanon ninety eighty six in their quarterfinal.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
There is and missus.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
They go Ford, New Zealand to get a hold on
an incredible win.

Speaker 4 (00:37):
For the Tall Blacks.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Put it into context, they are marching on to the
semifinals at an incredible come from behind win for New Zealand.

Speaker 4 (00:51):
They looked dead.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
In the latter They certainly did. They were behind by
twenty one at one point, but ended up winning it
ninety eighty six, and we now faced China in the semifinals.
Eleven o'clock tonight, New Zealand Time. We're joined by point
guard Taylor Britt, who suffered an ankle injury in the
quarter final and was forced to play just a limited role.
So let's start there, can we Taylor? How is the ankle?

(01:13):
Are you going to be okay for the semi Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:16):
Yeah, they're a little banged up, but she'll be right.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
All right, good stuff. That's good to hear. Good to
get the injury report out of the way first. Now,
can we talk about the first quarter against Lebanon? What
on earth happened in that first quarter?

Speaker 4 (01:31):
Yeah, that's a great question.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
I guess like we knew, we knew the intensity that
they play with the really passionate group of players, and yeah,
it's I guess it's still caught us by surprise and
they got on top of us there throwing the first
punch like that. But yeah, it definitely was not an
idea where to start the game.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, thirty two twelve at quarter time, but you know,
you could easily have let that define the whole game.
It didn't. But is there much you can do when
a team just shooting the lights out like that?

Speaker 4 (02:06):
Yeah, I guess it's it's on us to.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
Come together as staking eat it as a group. And really,
I guess Honan, defensively, there was a great crowd there,
which you know drowned out at a lot of our talks,
So we just needed to be better talking and staying
connected as five people on defense?

Speaker 2 (02:23):
What sort of messages were you know, you're being given
by your coaching staff, you know what sort of conversations
when you could hear them we're going on out there,
and particularly at halftime as well, you know you're still
fifteen behind. But it really sort of got better from
there on.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
Yeah, I guess Juddy towards the end of that first
quarter just really put it out on the table there
basically just challenged us. It's just saying that we weren't
playing at the with the physicality or effort that we
needed to do. So he challenged us, and I guess
from that point on we responded as a playing group.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Was there a point at which you thought the game
had swung back in your favor or was swinging back
and you you had the momentum of the game.

Speaker 4 (03:11):
I'm not sure if.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
There's a pin point, but I think you know, we
knew that basketble is a gamer runs and twenty points
is you know, it was done the day before in
the game, so we knew it was possible, and we
just need to stay stay together as it, stay together
as a group and slowly chip away at it. And
I guess it when it gets to single digits, you know,

(03:35):
anything can really happen at that stage.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Do you get a sense from your opposition that they're
not necessarily panicking, but realizing that you guys are on
the charge and it's down to single digits and you're
getting closer and closer. Can you sense that in your
opposition as well?

Speaker 3 (03:52):
Yeah, I'd say I'd say they would probably feel how
we were feeling in that fresh quarter, like they couldn't
get stops and you know, couldn't make shots. But yeah,
I think I think as the game goes on and
you know, it starts to get a bit closer, you
definitely get that feeling.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
So how much confidence do you take forward into the
semi final and not saying that you want to take
the same strategy again and come from twenty one points down,
but how much confidence do you take from overturning a
deficit like that to win such a big game.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
Yeah, we'll definitely try abist to avoid that that strategy,
but yeah, it does give us confidence.

Speaker 4 (04:30):
You know, we've got twelve guys.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
Here that can play, and our depth was really shown
last night, guys like Carlin I thought he came in
and changed the game with his energy and Maximo doing.

Speaker 4 (04:46):
What they've been doing for out the tournament.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
But yeah, it give us a lot of confidence, you know,
coming back from twenty that you know, we've seen that
if we do the right things and what we've been
asked to do, that the results follow after that.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
How gutting was it for you? I mean everyone wants
to play, right, I'm sure you wanted to carry on.
Did you just come to the realization that you're just
the ankle was no good and it would be better
for the team if you if you sat down for
the rest of the game. Hard as that decision would
have been.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
Yeah, yeah, it's always tough, kind of just I just
said I could do what do what I was needed
to do, and you know, we were we were playing well,
so Flinny was doing a great job out there taking
control of the team, and yeah, just stayed ready. I
guess if if I was if I was needed, But yeah, luckily,

(05:34):
luckily I wasn't needed.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
All right, But you're going to be okay for the semmer,
Like you feel like you're we're it strapped up and
you'll you'll be good to go.

Speaker 4 (05:42):
That's the plan.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
A good plan too. What are the parts of the
Tour Blacks game that have got better as the tournament
has progressed.

Speaker 3 (05:53):
We've got a real emphasis on pace with this group,
and I think we've been doing a really good job
on on that so far. But that that, I guess
where we went wrong in that first quarter.

Speaker 4 (06:06):
We weren't rebounding the ball.

Speaker 3 (06:08):
We gave up sex or so offensive rebounds, which made
us play at a pace that we don't want to
be playing yet. So I'd say that's been the bit
that's been really really good for us progressing every game.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
How do you reckon your match up against China?

Speaker 4 (06:26):
We haven't looked at looked at them yet.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
We're about to have a film session, so you know,
we like our chances against eve Run in this tournament.
If we play the brand of two blacks Bickeble that
we're looking to play, you know, we feel like we
can beat anyone.

Speaker 4 (06:41):
So I think it's on us and.

Speaker 3 (06:43):
Then we'll look at what we can do in terms
of scout in a couple of in a couple of hours.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
He made a comment before about the about the noise. Yeah,
it sounds like the Lebanese fans make quite a bit
of noise even during the haker. How did you respond
to that, Yeah, it was quite quite loud.

Speaker 3 (07:02):
I was next to Natai and he was leading and
I could we could hardly hear them, but you know,
it's it's awesome. I guess we as players want to
play in environments like that. It's yeah, it makes the
makes the game a lot more entertaining for us. I
guess we're responding to that challenge that they've been the

(07:23):
fans of set then. Yeah, it's a lot of fun
playing in environments like that.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
A few Kiwis in the crowd as well. I saw
a few few Kiwi flags and Black singers. You've got
a bit of a bit of on the ground support
over there.

Speaker 4 (07:36):
Yeah, we've seen a few. We've seen a few out there.

Speaker 3 (07:40):
You know.

Speaker 4 (07:41):
It's always good to see the Kiwi flags out in
the crowd.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
Good stuff, all right, Well, hopefully they're hopefully they're there
for the semi final. I'm sure there will be, Taylor,
Thanks for joining us. I hope the ankle's okay, strap
it up and get out there. Look forward to seeing
how you go, Taylor britt point guard out of the
Tall Blacks tonight eleven o'clock New Zealand time they take
on China in the semifinals. Australia and Iran in the
second of the semis, that's four o'clock tomorrow morning, and

(08:04):
then third and fourth place playoff and the so regardless
of the result, New Zealand will play one more game
they want to play the Grand Final. China won all
of their games in Paul play and then got past
Korea South Korea in the quarterfinals seventy nine seventy one,
so it's a pretty good matchup eleven o'clock tonight, we'll
be sure to cover it off for you on the show.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
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