Basketball: Bitter taste of defeat

By JENNI RUTHERFORD in INDIANAPOLIS

They lived on a high for 13 days.

Ecstatic after wins against Russia and Venezuela in the first round, China in the second and Puerto Rico in the quarter-finals, the Tall Blacks were forced to swallow a bitter pill yesterday.

New Zealand's 89-78 loss to Yugoslavia was agony for the 12 players and their coaching and support staff.

Bodies were weary not only from playing eight matches in less than two weeks at the world championships but also from the emotional rollercoaster each had travelled on since arriving in Indianapolis.

There was no masking the disappointment on the faces of inspirational coach Tab Baldwin and his gutsy captain, Pero Cameron.

With a deep breath, Cameron spoke of what he and his team were feeling now that the Tall Blacks' epic adventure will bypass the gold-medal match.

"[The dream] is gone, it's gone for us," said Cameron. "When you lose it's tough to focus. When you win, you don't think. It's tough for us.

The New Zealanders were to play Germany, 86-80 losers to Argentina in their semifinal, for the bronze early this morning.

Yugoslavia will take on Argentina in the final.

The Germans whipped New Zealand 84-64 in their second-round match last week.

Tall Black Kirk Penney returned a game-high 24 points against Yugoslavia, the defending and four-time world champions, including six from six at the free-throw line and four from six three-point attempts.

"When you win, you instantly focus on the next game," he said.

"That focus has shifted now that we have been knocked out of the championship game.

"But if we leave here with a bronze medal it will be a great thing."

Baldwin said his team's achievements would not sink in until they returned to New Zealand.

"We can't feel anything right now except extreme disappointment,"he said.

"We know that our country is extremely proud of us so I guess it won't be until we can go back into their arms and they can tell us just how proud they are and just how much we've meant that we will feel like winners again.

"You are losers when you lose a game."

New Zealand were outgunned in the third quarter by Yugoslavia, scoring just 10 points to the champion's 27 as their 48-39 halftime lead was gobbled up by a team fielding five National Basketball Association players. Despite the despondency, the magnitude of New Zealand's efforts in Indianapolis should not be overlooked.

"When there's a small band of guys who believe, and a small country who believes, it is very satisfying to get this far," Baldwin said. "What our team have done so far is still pretty superhuman."

The New Zealanders took the court against Yugoslavia buoyed by their 81-79 win over them at the Super Cup tournament in Germany three weeks ago.

But on that occasion the Tall Blacks had on deck Miami Heat forward Sean Marks, who made a significant 27-point contribution.

He was again absent from the court yesterday following an eye injury sustained in the first-round game against Argentina one week ago.

Marks was keen to play but was advised against doing so by Miami Heat doctors and management.

New Zealand have unquestionably missed the services of their biggest player but they boxed on well above their weight without him to reach the semifinals.

Baldwin said it was difficult to quantify what Marks' continuing absence had meant.

"It's difficult to give an estimate of how much of a better team we are with Sean out there, but despite the lack of depth inside and the lack of experience [New Zealand] are a good basketball team, with or without Sean.

"I sure wish we had had him but that is just fantasyland. We played pretty damn well for a team lacking a frontline player."

Point guard Paul Henare was "absolutely gutted" to be knocked out of gold-medal contention.

"People will say we have done well but we don't feel like we have. It feels like we let one slip away," he said.

Cameron summed up the emotions of his team.

"Myself and the team, we are all disappointed," he said.

"Yugoslavia are big, they're tough. When you lose it's tough to focus. When you win, you don't think. It's tough for us."

The Tall Blacks had Yugoslavia sweating in the first half.

Winning the first quarter 30-19, New Zealand kept pace by scoring 18-20 in the second quarter to go to the break nine points up.

The Yugoslavs, with superior depth on the bench, stopped the Tall Blacks in their tracks in the third period, and that was ultimately where the game's outcome was decided.

"Yugoslavia stuck it to us in the second half. We stalled often," Baldwin said.

"We struggled to get scoring opportunities. We tried to hold them at bay. They got rolling after they hit a couple of threes to start the second half."

Yugoslav head coach Svetislav Pesic said his team had been pushed to the limit.

"We didn't think we could lose, and maybe that is why we played bad defence in the first half. We were able to play good defence in the end and that is why we won."

Yugoslavia outnumbered New Zealand's offensive rebounds 16-3 and total rebounds 42-22. The defending champions scored 17-0 in second-chance points and dominated under the basket.

Yugoslav centre Dejan Koturovic top-scored for his team with 18 points, and Marco Jaric, a Los Angeles Clippers guard, made 16 points coming off the bench.

Penney's performance, in the second spell particularly, was ideal promotional video material for any prospective scouts eyeing the University of Wisconsin landscape architecture student.

Phill Jones contributed 17 points but was slightly off his best yesterday.

Cameron chimed in with 16, most of them in the first half.

Elsewhere, the United States suffered another humiliating loss, 81-75 to Spain, to finish sixth. It was a forgettable week for the United States, who saw their streak of 58 consecutive wins over 10 years when using NBA players in international competition come to an end.

After taking a 13-point lead in the fourth quarter yesterday, the Americans let another game get away from them, losing for the third time in four games.

Juan Carlos Navarro led Spain with 26 points, and Gasol added 19 points. Spain claims fifth place with the victory.

Raef Lafrentz had 13 points for the US, and Ben Wallace added 12 points.

Puerto Rico finished seventh by defeating Brazil 91-84.

The Puerto Ricans trailed by one point at halftime but rallied to win a game that featured nine changes of lead and the game tied 11 other times.

Daniel Santiago had 19 points and 12 rebounds for the winners, and Raymond Dalmau added 18 points.

Elias Ayuso chipped in with 16 points for Puerto Rico. Guilherme Giovannoni had 19 points for Brazil, and Anderson Varejao, Sandro Franca Varejao and Demetrius Ferraciu all added 13 points.

Turkey wrapped up ninth place by defeating Russia 91-86.

The Russians, whose streak of 10 consecutive world championships with a medal ended at this event, led by as many as 16 points in the third quarter and carried a 71-62 lead into the final quarter.

But the Turks outscored Russia 29-15 in the final 10 minutes.

Mirsad Turkcan had 18 points and 20 rebounds for Turkey, and Ibrahim Kutluay added 20 points.

Zakhar Pachoutine had 22 points for Russia and Vassili Karassev and Serguei Tchikalkine both added 11 points.

Angola finished 11th thanks to a 96-84 win over China.

Edmar Victoriano and Joaquim Gomes both had 17 points for the winners, who led by as many as 23 points.

Yao Ming had his best production of the tournament for China, finishing with 27 points and 15 rebounds.

Liu Yudong added 15 points for the Chinese.

- NZPA