John Hill stars in N.Z.’s ‘test’ victory

Press, 14 July 1980, Page 20

John Hill stars in N.Z.’s ‘test’ victory

John Hill's “great, great re-fl bounding effort” rated special!' mention by the New Zealand! men’s basketball coach. Steve! McKean. after his team beat; Launceston Casino tAustrafia,.!; fiis-65. in the first "test” at Cowles Stadium on Saturday. < Hill almost eclipsed his “big”;! brother, Stan, as he Jumped sue-; csesfully for rebound after re-i bound on the defensive boards; and, for good measure, scored a health- 14 - oirts at the other end ot the court. • Bv the i.nai quarter it seemed:' that the 203 cm Hill had taken! • all the sting out of his opponents.;: with almost all the defensive; rebounds going the New Zea-' lander’s way. ;' Stab Hill eventual!’.- finished ■with A vital tally of 25 points,i:

but in the early stages his shots! were badly off. tai’get and the: team itself was combining none! too well. '- . | air McKean skid that he was I “happy just to get a win,” see-j ing the team had had only one; practice since the international tournament at Taiwan last May.l But he was hoping for better performances in the “tests” at! Timaru yesterday and at Dun-: edin today. , j Unlike Taiwan where Stan Hill; 'regularly amassing huge totals;; was relatively unknown to his, opponents, “the Australians know what he's like and he’ll prob-; ablv face a lot of pressure in; the series.” The Tasmanians started with! three of their American players) — Alden Ulrich. Curtis Coleman.) arid Jim Ericksen — dri the court

nand thev proved as “talented” as; ;;Mr McKean had expected. I ■I Coleman, a 188 cm Negro guard.' )made his mark in the first fewj ;i minutes with three lovely out- ■ jside shots in quick succession! ;;and Ericksen, at 206 cm almost: I; as tall as Stan Hill, made it: .1 difficult for that player to get) •in close. ;! Play was initially far too; ■ iscrappy, and with Stan Hill mis-) I sing his early chances the New; !i Zealanders seemed to lack co-l ihesion and trailed 13-22 in the! ; i first quarter. In the tenth minute, however. J Hill finally slotted a fine buti; side shot which signalled a team I revival. ii New Zealand won 10 straight ;j points to go front 21-26 down to; .131-26 up in the fifteerith tninute and was never again behind. Mr

McKean was able to rest John Hill late in the second quarter with no damage done at all. In fact itis replacement. Aridy Bennett, managed six points in those 3min.

Bennett’s last goal was a little controversial. The clock had been put back because the referee considered the half-time hooter had sounded before the player touched the ball. “One second” remained to be played, the’ referee ruled, but when play restarted the time left on the clock .was more like 3s and this gave New Zealand time to set up the goal for a safer 3S-34 lead. Twice in the second half NewZealand stretched its lead out to riirie points <at 49-40 and 53-46> but each time the Australians closed the gap.

S'tan Hill collected his fourth four in the seventh minute arid Bennett came off the bench once again. New Zealand was still six points clear at 61-53 when Hill returned 6min later. In the last few minutes danger loomed for New Zealand, though, with some threateriirig fast breaks by the Launceston side, arid in the seventeenth minute the home team collected iis tenth toiil and simultaneously lost its industrious guard, John Rademakers. With 3min left two successful Coleman free throws brought tlie Tasmanians up to 61-64 and a similar margin . existed at 63-66 wiili SOsec left. However, Stari Hill got a great goal and Launceston could score only once more, meantime losing one player, Andrew Clements, fouled off with 60sec left —-soon after a run-in with Johri Hill.

It was a .good team effort by the New Zealanders after the riiessy start. New Zealand basically stuck with its starting five

o? the Kill brothers, Bert Knops (whose contribution was well I appreciated bv Mr McKeani, Rademakers, arid Jack Maere. Bennett, Wayne Marsh, and, briefly, the youngster, David; Mason, also had runs. ' Launceston Casino relied a lot) on its Americans and the only “home-grown” players used to anv great extent were Stephen Warren and Andrew Clements. Scoring details: — NEW ZEALAND 63: S. Hill 25, J. Hill 14. B. Knops 12, J. Rademakers 10. A. Bennett 6. W. Marsh T. LAUNCESTON CASINO 65: C. Colerhari 22, A. Ulrich 13. S. Msr-, ren 10. J. Ericksen 10, A. Clements 3. A. Lringderi 2. I In the curtain-raiser the Aus-| tralian junior men’s team cora-l pleted its clean sweep of thci four-test series against the New! Zealand Juniors, winning con-; viricingly. 82-54. ) The Australians shot, very accurately arid were up 15-2 after) only 7min. Dave Edriionds pulled!

> down some good early rebounds, II but the New Zealanders found ,lit hard to penetrate the tight • Australian defence. ;j New Zealand lacked an outside : ) Shooter with the great ability of • Australia’s Paul Hyland, a 19 ,i year-old guard who chalked up 23 points. The other top player • for the visitors was Dnniisn 1 Keogh, who Impressed with hi’ drives through the centre as he collected 15 points. ’ The Australians broke fast very effectively and were rather swifter around the court than their opponents. ■ I AUSTRALIAN JUNIORS 82: P. •■Hyland 23. D. Keogh 15, M. Davis 9, E. Drizriers 8. R. Borner 7. •|M. Johnson 6. K. Borrett 6. J. • I Kirkup 3, B. Maher 2. R. Serigni til. NEW ZEALAND JUNIORS $4: D. Edmonds 12. R Larkin 3. E. I Lockhart 6, F Mulvihill 6. J. Vaega 6, C. Freear 6. C. Dobbs I 4, M. Sklnrion 2, G. Austin 2, C. j Green 2.