Basketball: Junior Tall Blacks go down to Croatia

New Zealand again fought above their weight - and height - before going down 79-72 to Croatia in their second loss at the world under-19 men's basketball championship in Auckland tonight.

As with the dramatic 66-64 loss to Argentina on the opening night yesterday, the Junior Tall Blacks were far from disgraced against higher-ranked opponents.

The tournament hosts were still in contention in the closing stages but couldn't match the European giants in a tense, low-scoring finish.

The Croatian side featured seven players who stand 2m or taller while the Junior Tall Blacks were without their tallest player, with centre Rob Loe sidelined by an Achilles strain suffered in last night's loss.

Standing up in his absence was forward Richie Edwards, who scored 24 points and pulled down nine rebounds while captain Dion Prewster contributed 13 points and managed eight boards.

The key Croatian was centre Mario Delas, whose game-high 31 points and 14 rebounds were hugely influential.

It appeared New Zealand had lost their touch as they trailed 8-0 early but recovered to trail just 18-16 after the first quarter.

The score was 38-31 at halftime but New Zealand snatched the lead by one midway through the third stanza and the scores were locked 65-65 with less than 5min on the clock.

However, a Croatian six-point burst at that stage proved decisive.

Croatia and Argentina are unbeaten in group D and meet tomorrow night while New Zealand must beat winless Kazakhstan if they are advance to the second phase of the tournament.

The bottom team in each of the four four-team pools drop to classification matches, something the gutsy New Zealanders will be desperate to avoid.

- NZPA