China will return to the FIBA Asia Cup Finals for the first time since winning it all in 2015 at the expense of Gilas Pilipinas.
Rui Zhao made the biggest plays down the stretch, and China denied New Zealand, 98-84, in their FIBA Asia Cup semifinal tussle Saturday, Aug. 16.
Team Dragon thus advanced to the Finals against the winner between Australia and Iran in the other semifinal pairing.
Rui scored 10 of his 24 points in the final 3:47 minutes of action at the King Abdullah Sports City, including the hail mary from deep that buried the Tall Blacks for good, 96-84, with 19.2 ticks left to play.
The youthful Sanning Liao then canned the two free throws that allowed the Chinese to return to the biggest stage for the first time since winning it all in 2015 at Gilas Pilipinas’ expense.
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Team Dragon first broke free after Rui propelled an eight-to-nothing run that turned a slim 81-76 lead to an 89-76 advantage from which the gritty Tall Blacks struggled to recover.
Rui made it all happen, dropping five straight points before finding an open Shiyan Gao in the left elbow for three and the 13-point buffer.
Taylor Britt and Mojave King tried to will New Zealand back from the dead, scoring eight straight points, with King accounting for five to pull to within 84-89 entering the last two minutes.
Rui and Liao, however, were quick to respond, and China went on to beat the Kiwis to tie their head-to-head clash in FIBA tournaments at 4-4.
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Junjie Wang proved steady anew for China with 14 points, six rebounds and two assists, while Mingxuan Hu had 13 points.
Liao and Jinqiu Hu scored 12 apiece.
Meanwhile, Britt paced New Zealand with 21 points, three rebounds, six assists and a steal. King contributed 19 points built on four triples to go with two rebounds, an assists, three steals and a block.
Flynn Cameron and Tohi Smith Miler added 11 points each as the Tall Blacks fight for a podium finish against the loser in the Australia-Iran game.