Basketball: Baldwin annoyed by defensive effort

ISTANBUL - There is ample room for improvement for a cold New Zealand team after their disappointing start to the Six Nations tournament in Istanbul today.

The Tall Blacks suffered an 86-64 defeat to world champions Serbia and Montenegro in their first match, the 22-point losing margin New Zealand's biggest in more than a year.

They upset Yugoslavia, who are now known as Serbia-Montenegro, in Germany this time last year, but in the world championship semifinals in Indianapolis the same opponents broke the nation's hearts with an 89-78 semifinal victory.

The Tall Blacks must now win their other pool B game against Italy tomorrow if they are to progress to the semifinals and avoid a bottom-of-the-table clash with the third-placed team in pool A.

Not only are New Zealand playing with an under-strength and under-prepared team, but they came into today's clash with just two practises together as a full team and no international play for two months.

New Zealand hinted that another upset was on the cards when captain Pero Cameron's jump shot tied the scores at 24-24 at the end of the first quarter.

However, star Serbia-Montenegro forward Predrag Stojakovic lifted and finished the half with 18 points, helping his team win the second quarter 31-14 and sparking them to a 55-38 halftime lead.

Dejan Koturovic, too, was a dominating force, with 17 points for the match, the majority inside the key.

Tony Rampton, back in the side, top-scored for the New Zealanders with 14 points and six rebounds.

The Tall Blacks were soft on defence, which disappointed coach Tab Baldwin.

"The problem was in the defensive end, and I don't think we should have trouble at the defensive end," he said.

"I think we should be able to guard anybody in the world and we let ourselves down in this match."

It was a scrappy performance from both sides for the entire 40 minutes.

"The game was very physical and very ugly," Baldwin said.

"I don't like that. I like basketball players to play basketball, not wrestle.

"There is certainly a lot to work on and I think it's very evident that we haven't made the step up to this level of competition, but I believe we are capable of doing that."

Dillon Boucher had a huge presence, hustling the ball and stealing possession for New Zealand.

"It was a little bit disappointing, I know we didn't play as well as we could have," Boucher said, after scoring four points and making three steals. "We let them get too many open shots."

In today's other game, Turkey beat hosts Latvia 86-70.

New Zealand 64 (T. Rampton 14, P. Cameron 11, P. Jones 9)

Serbia and Montenegro 86 (P. Stojakovic 18, D. Koturovic 17, M. Vujanic 13).

Quarter scores: 24-24, 38-55, 49-73, 64-86.

- NZPA