Basketball: Tall Ferns downed by Poland

SYDNEY - New Zealand made a fighting start to the Olympic Games before the women's basketball team were outclassed 52-75 by European champions Poland here today.

The first New Zealanders in action at the Games, the Tall Ferns seemed overwhelmed by the occasion in the opening stages before mounting a mid-game revival.

A vocal crowd of 2500 at The Dome got behind the New Zealanders as they matched their taller, more experienced opponents in scoring over the last 30 minutes of the game.

But they could never make up for an error-ridden start that saw them down 3-25 after 10 minutes.

The Tall Ferns' best period came in the middle of the game as forwards Gina Farmer and Julie Ofsoski began to create some chances close to the basket.

Down 10-34 six minutes before halftime, they brought it back to 33-43 four minutes into the second half, including the first 10 points of the spell.

The Poles responded with 14 unanswered points of their own to make the game safe but New Zealand continued to provide problems with their aggressive defence and more patient offence.

New Zealand's biggest handicap was matching 2.15m Polish centre Malgorzata Dydek, who shapes as one of the stars of the tournament.

Dydek scored a game-high 20 points and also led the rebounding and shot blocking statistics.

The Tall Ferns did well to force her into foul trouble which kept her off court for much of the second half.

Ofsoski top-scored for New Zealand with 13 points while Tania Brunton netted 10 and Farmer eight.

Key New Zealand forward Rebecca Cotton had a hard time interpreting the refereeing calls and was fouled out with 10 minutes remaining.

New Zealand coach Carl Dickel said the match illustrated what his side were up against at the tournament.

"I thought we were the better for the last half hour but you don't get too many points for that, you've got to play the game for 40 minutes against these teams because they will hurt you otherwise," Dickel said.

"It was disappointing to lose but I'm happy with the team and the way they stuck to it. I think we showed everyone here we can play."

Dickel refused to blame the loss on the team's delay in getting back into the Olympic Village last night. They were finally admitted to the Village well after midnight and had to play at 9.30am this morning.

The New Zealand men's team open their Olympic campaign tomorrow against France.

Result:

Poland 75 (Malgorzata Dydek 20, Joanna Cuprys 16, Sylwia Wlazlak 14) New Zealand 52 (Julie Ofsoski 13, Tania Brunton 10, Gina Farmer 8).

Halftime: Poland 43-23.

- NZPA