IN A stirring comeback result at the 2025 FIBA Under-17 Oceania Cup, the Australian Crocs were able to overcome a 19-point deficit to defeat New Zealand by six points in a classic encounter between two tournament heavyweights.

The Crocs came into the clash in strong form, with the Aussies unbeaten and still riding their wave of success from last year’s Asia Cup campaign. However, games against New Zealand always bring out Australia’s best, so it loomed as the Crocs’ biggest challenge yet on their quest to claim the championship in Samoa.

New Zealand jumped out to an early lead, and looked likely to pull off a massive upset against the tournament favourites, before the Aussies stormed back into the game and ended up overrunning the opposition, 93-87.

The Kiwis implemented their physicality early in the piece, which took away a lot of Australia’s strengths and allowed New Zealand to take control of proceedings early. The Junior Tall Blacks led by six points at the first change, stunning an Australia side that had led for its entire campaign to date.

New Zealand continued to put pressure on the Aussies, pushing the lead out to 17 points at the main break on the back of some terrific interior offence. Whether it was finishing at the cup or drawing contact and converting at the free throw line, the Junior Tall Blacks were simply finding scores too easily, and the Aussies were feeling the heat.

The margin pushed out to as many as 19 points early in the third frame, and it looked as if it was game over for Australia in a stunning result. However, the Crocs never surrendered and began to claw their way back into the contest on the back of some stirring defensive pressure. At the final change, the margin was cut down to 10 points, and the Aussies were certainly still in the fight.

With five minutes left to play in the match, Australia took its first lead of the match having restricted New Zealand’s inside offence and erased the deficit in a terrific comeback. The Crocs then showed plenty of composure closing out the match, showing class with the game on the line and holding on for a memorable six-point buffer to remain undefeated.

There was no one on the court who could match Jai Fa’ale‘s production on the scoring front, with the emerging talent posting an astounding 29 points for the match on 7/15 shooting from the field. Remarkably, he could have had an even bigger output had he converted at the free throw line, nailing just 10 of his 17 attempts from the charity stripe, but was still the most influential scorer of the match.

The Aussies would not have lifted themselves to victory if not for the performance of their star point guard in Luke Paul as well, who was immense in getting dragging Australia back into the contest. Touted as the premier talent coming from down under, Paul stuffed the stat sheet once again with 18 points, six rebounds and a whopping 15 assists to perfectly orchestrate the offence in the second half and lead the Crocs to the comeback win.

The Australian Sapphires also got the job done against New Zealand in the women’s tournament yesterday, albeit in more dominant fashion. The Sapphires claimed an impressive 50-point win to remain the team to beat at the tournament and continue to charge towards another tournament win.