Basketball: Tall Blacks go down fighting, but crave more games

By CHRIS BARCLAY

MELBOURNE - New Zealand stood tall in the face of adversity but were unable to stop Australia sweeping the Oceania Basketball championships here last night.

The Tall Blacks were sunk by a late three-point spree by Australia who claimed an 84-75 victory against a New Zealand side deprived of two of their power forwards for most of the game.

Ed Book retired with a shoulder injury after he was clattered to the floor in the opening quarter. He logged just six minutes while captain Pero Cameron was another early departure after he wrenched his left knee.

Behind for the entire match, New Zealand clawed back to 60-63 with eight minutes to play but five three-pointers on the run home kept the Boomers out of reach.

Coach Tab Baldwin labelled the effort brave considering the loss of Cameron and Book.

"We lost two of our best inside scorers so without the two big fellas it was a pretty courageous effort."

Baldwin said the side threw caution to the wind in the final quarter, chasing defensive steals but the tactic ultimately led to their downfall.

"We were gambling a lot late looking for steals, we didn't want to go down by a respectable 10 points. We had some success but we got out of position defensively."

Three-pointers from Shane Heal, John Rillie (two apiece) and Glen Saville gave the Boomers breathing space. Until then Australia had netted just four of 23 attempts from outside the arc.

Baldwin who again clashed with referees Mike Aylen and Ken Coulson throughout, admitted the Boomers were "probably 10 points better".

Matthew Nielsen dominated the Boomers' scoring with 25, while the Tall Blacks had four in double figures -- Phill Jones heading the quartet with 14.

New Zealand managed to keep thanks to netting 18 of 19 freethrows but their overall shooting percentage from the field (32.4 per cent) was again inferior to Australia (45.3 per cent).

Baldwin said the 3-0 loss was a learning experience and he felt the team had developed since Monday's opening loss in Bendigo.

"We learnt a lot of different ways to attack Australia. We were much more efficient (last night), we just hit a cold spell late in the game."

The American admitted the 2003 record -- two wins and seven losses -- was a disappointing return.

"I thought we could have made more progress but we had limited preparation. Australia had 14 games and they still feel underdone. We need more international competition."

Basketball New Zealand is still finalising next year's pre-Olympic schedule.

Pivotal guard Phill Jones said more games would have helped.

"Our preparation wasn't as good as it was before the world champs," Jones said.

The Tall Blacks played three home tests against the Czech Republic in July, winning 2-1, before heading to a Turkish tournament where they lost to Latvia, Serbia-Montenegro and Italy.

Although normal service appears to have resumed from an Australian perspective, triple Olympian Shane Heal said New Zealand continued to earn respect and should be enhanced by the New Zealand Breakers entry into the Australian National Basketball League (ANBL) next month.

The new franchise has eight current Tall Blacks on their roster.

"They (NZ) are on the improve already and coming into the NBL is only going to help them even more."

Australia's victory extended their unbeaten home record to 17 matches against New Zealand and overall they have a 36 win three loss record going back to 1971.

Australian Boomers 84 (Matthew Nielsen 25, Shane Heal, Chris Anstey 13) New Zealand Tall Blacks 75 (Phill Jones 14, Tony Rampton, Dillon Boucher 11). Halftime: 41-36

- NZPA