Basketball: NZ upset Russia in world champs

12.30pm

New Zealand caused shockwaves at the world basketball championships in Indianapolis today when they opened their campaign by beating European heavyweights Russia.

New Zealand prevailed 90-81 over the 1998 silver medallists following a stunning second-half comeback.

Contesting their first world championships since 1986, the Tall Blacks's proved their mettle on the back of an outstanding performance from Kirk Penney.

Trailing 35-54 early in the second half, New Zealand stormed back into the match to eradicate the deficit and draw level at 69-all with a touch under six minutes remaining.

They then snuck ahead 77-75 with 3min 12sec remaining before a Mark Dickel three-pointer saw them lead 82-79 and essentially settled the matter when Sean Marks scored and drew a foul to see them ahead 84-79 with 48sec on the clock.

The Tall Blacks' fightback owed much to the Penney, who fully involved himself, while teammates collectively became more aggressive under the boards.

Deep in trouble when down 35-49 at halftime, the Tall Blacks responded positively to their plight at the resumption to go on a 15-5 stretch.

They couldn't maintain their intensity though as Russia made use of their talent-laden bench to stay in front 67-58 entering the final quarter.

Earlier, following a pre-match haka before an almost empty 18,000-capacity venue, New Zealand began strongly, sinking a couple of three-pointers via captain Pero Cameron and Sean Marks to edge ahead 10-4 in the initial stages.

But their honeymoon period ended just as quickly as the physical Russians muscled up on defence to head to the halftime break comfortably ahead after they had led 21-17 at the end of the first quarter.

New Zealand converted just 11 of 29 field goal attempts in the opening half as they found it difficult to break down Russia's defences.

Both sides found themselves in early foul trouble, with Cameron and Russian National Basketball Association star Andrei Kirilenko spending much of the second quarter on the bench after picking up three fouls apiece.

Kirilenko committed his fifth foul early in the fourth quarter to prematurely end his involvement in a game in which he was expected to be a dominant figure.

It was New Zealand's first-ever win over Russia. The last time the two nations met, in Australia in 2000 , Russia were forced to double overtime.

While Penney was a standout, Cameron stepped up to the mark in the second spell as did Marks and Dickel.

The win may have been achieved at some cost, though, as Marks, this country's sole NBA player, limped from the court in the closing seconds with what could be a serious ankle injury.

Marks' build-up to the championships had been hampered by a hamstring strain.


Preliminary round results today:

Group A:

Brazil 102 Lebanon 73

Puerto Rico 78 Turkey 75

Group B:

Yugoslavia 113 Angola 63

Spain 85 Canada 54

- NZPA