Basketball: Chanting lifts Tall Blacks

By PETER JESSUP

The Tall Blacks just keep getting better and better. On Monday they pushed the No 2 team in their pool, Lithuania, through a 75-85 thriller that confirmed the New Zealanders' right to be in the top 12 in the world.

The Dome was going off - a huge number of Tall Black fans adapted the hosts' chant to "Kiwi, Kiwi, Kiwi, Oi, Oi, Oi," and gave the team a huge lift.

Pero Cameron, Sean Marks and Phill Jones carried a huge load. Marks was obviously a target for the Lithuanians but still managed a game-high 21 points and a time-high 34 minutes in a display that proved to anyone watching that he could foot it front-line in the NBA.

Jones shot three from six three-point attempts and hit 20 points all-up, landing baskets at crucial times to lift his side and stop the opposition setting up a bigger than 10-point gap.

Cameron was all over the court at a speed belying his size. He was in the wrestle, after the rebounds, setting up his team mates and shooting 14.

Coach Keith Mair, always reserved, was proud of his team and offered more than the usual couple of comments. "It's an honour to play these teams and to play like that ... it's like the Lithuanian rugby team trying to play the All Blacks."

The exposure to the top level of competition would help the game a great deal, Mair said. "The team has improved every game, we get very few international matches but when we get some our players prove they can step up."

Apart from a couple of minutes when they dropped their composure and offered turnovers that the Lithuanians turned to points, and three wayward passes, the Tall Blacks played a complete game that had their opponents rattled from the start and troubled by their inability to score freely.

Kirk Penney, 19, played 23 minutes for eight points in what was one of the noisiest games of his life, including time in the United States. "We really appreciated the Kiwi support, the chanting on defence really motivated the team. The guys really played hard, making their country proud."

It had been gut-wrenching to see the Lithuanians shoot four three-pointers near the end to seal what they believed right until then was a game they could take, he said.

The Tall Blacks have their last match on Tuesday against Angola, the sixth-placed side from the other pool, to decide who's 11th and who is last here.

Cameron opened the scoring but the Lithuanians replied within four seconds to set the pace for what was a fast, aggressive and entertaining game. There was none of the slam-dunk high-flying of the match with the Americans, but a similar intensity on court.

The Kiwis won the decibel gold, shouting down all organised calls for the Lithuanians by a factor of around 20 to one. The only empty seats were the ones for the "Olympic Family" - Juan Antonio Samaranch and mates, sponsors and hangers-on - and on the press benches, built to accommodate the American media and only full when the Dream Team plays. When Marks matched the late Lithuanian three-pointers with two slam-dunks, the Dome rattled.

It was 33-36 at half-time, the first 20 ending with the Lithuanians on the press bench shouting advice and punctuating it by slamming their fists down sufficiently hard to rattle the image on the TV monitors. Coach Jonas Kazlauskas delivered curt orders at volume from the sideline, then wandered off at the break looking downcast.

The second half went much as the first. The Lithuanians were never in danger of losing but always under pressure and putting so much pressure on themselves they blew their chances and could not establish the dominance to close the game down.

"There was no time when we could relax when we were sitting on the bench," Kazlauskas said. "They played a relaxed game with good shooting, good fast-breaks, good long-range shooting. We made too many turnovers."

In the commentary boxes there was another Olympic event going on, the medals being decided for best pronunciation of the names of players from new Russian republics. You wouldn't want to sit in front of a lisper when Lithuania play.

Radio Sport caller Andrew Dewhurst admitted afterwards that there weren't too many of them that got a mention from him in the call back to New Zealand.