Basketball: Series clincher for Tall Blacks

By PETER JESSUP in Hamilton

NEW ZEALAND 89 CZECH REPUBLIC 65

The Tall Blacks cleaned up their test series against the Czech Republic 2-1 with an 89-65 win tonight in front of a 3300 sellout crowd at the Mystery Creek Events Centre near Hamilton.

They have improved steadily through the three games and coach Tab Baldwin now has more selection options after blooding new players Miles Pearce and Aaron Olson, who turned into real finds, Brendon Polyblank, Mike Homik, who was ruled out last night with a turned ankle, and Lindsay Tait.

The team went into the final match confident and after a slow start they played that way and gradually took charge.

Point guard Paul Henare played with a wrist injury that may be a fracture, with x-rays before the match inconclusive.

His shooting, along with that of his team-mates, was cold to start, but steadily improved to a team average 41 per cent success.

There were plenty of fouls again as there were in Invercargill, with both sides repeating the physical approach and playing the man, not the ball.

The visitors worked hard on the Tall Blacks' star shooter Phill Jones and he drew two early fouls and was sat down. Captain Pero Cameron was also rested early.

Cameron took time to find his range, but when he went inside to produce lay-ups or to provide the assists, the home team drove back into the game.

His ability to find the open shooter worked the Tall Blacks into it, the accuracy improved and they went to halftime with a 49-45 lead.

Both sides tightened their defences in the third and fourth spells and the scoring slowed.

Baldwin's main aim in the Jeep International Series was to try the new players and develop the team systems. He has to be happy with what was achieved. The 2-1 result maintains their presence on the world stage.

Tall Blacks 89 (Brendon Polyblank 13, Pero Cameron 12, Paul Henare 12)

Czech Republic 65 (Jan Pavlik 15, Veroslav Sucharda 10, Ales Klimek, Jaroslav Prasil 8). First quarter: 22-27. Halftime 49-45. Third quarter 70-58.