Basketball: Finally a win for New Zealand

New Zealand women's basketball team ended their first Olympic Games on a high note by clinching a 72-69 victory over Senegal on Tuesday.

It was the wooden-spoon play-off for 11th and 12th positions, with both teams having been outclassed by their opposition in their five pool games, but a win over the African champions was still a meritorious achievement for the battling Tall Ferns to celebrate.

New Zealand struggled with their defence at times and on offence they missed the injured Gina Farmer, who had been their topscorer in the pool round.

"Our defence was very ordinary. I think we underestimated the Senegalese a little bit," New Zealand coach Carl Dickel said.

"They turned the ball over a lot in other games. I think we thought we could force them into a lot of turnovers and that was not the case.

"We gave them too many easy shots and we really had to pull every rabbit out of the hat to get a win in the final analysis. They defended us really well."

Dickel said the Tall Ferns struggled against Senegal's zonal defence and would have lost the game had it not been for the long-range shooting of Megan Compain and Tania Brunton.

Brunton topscored for the team with 17 points, while Compain had a 60 percent success rate with her field goals for 11 points - including two three-pointers from two attempts.

Dickel praised the effort of Sally Farmer who came off the bench to give the team a lift that was desperately needed at times.

Her field goal shooting percentage was also 60 percent for 11 points and she held her nerve to put away five of her six free throws.

While Senegal's field goal shooting percentage was superior to New Zealand, the Tall Ferns' better foul shooting was a crucial aspect of their win.

Sally Farmer's older sister Gina had strained a muscle in her buttock against the United States, but then aggravated the injury in the Tall Ferns' game against Russia and was unable to run or jump.

"Not having Gina there took the heart out of our team but I was pleased how everyone else stepped up and did the job," Dickel said.

"We can't afford to lose sight of the fact that they (Senegal) are the best team in Africa ... It was a close game and in the final wash-up we were lucky to come out with a win."

The Tall Ferns hustled well in defence early but wilted after building up a 12-point buffer late in the first half.

Senegal rattled up 11 unanswered points in 100 seconds before halftime, the last coming when Donna Loffhagen had the ball stolen from her hand by Khadidiatou Diop who broke through for a lay-up to make score 39-40 as the halftime hooter sounded.

New Zealand were playing catch-up for most of the second half.

But they clawed their way back to lead 70-69, with two minutes to go when Sally Farmer put away two free throws.

Brunton laid up two points inside the last minute and Senegal missed a couple of long range shots as the clock counted down, to give New Zealand the close victory.

- NZPA