Basketball: Tall Ferns go close to toppling Australia

New Zealand bounced back from a 33-point defeat to narrowly go down 64-68 to Australia in a women's basketball match at Canberra last night.

The Tall Ferns have never beaten Australia at test level and although last night's match at the Australian Institute of Sport wasn't an official international, it was the closest they have come to beating their more illustrious counterparts.

The best in tests was the 14 points that separated them in game one of last year's Oceania championships in Tasmania.

New Tall Ferns coach Tom Maher, who masterminded the Australian Opals' previous two Olympic campaigns, pointed to the scoreboard and the improvement from the 38-71 and 49-68 losses earlier this week.

"We did fantastically well," he said. "We had the propensity to do well because we've had so little preparation, so we can make those giant strides.

"I thought our grit was phenomenal. And our defensive improvement...we have got more familiar with what we want to do defensively as time has gone on and we've got better at it.

"They're intelligent people and we can make strides in anything to do with intelligence."

Forward Julie Ofsoski, who became the South East Australian Basketball League's all-time scoring and rebounding leader last weekend, led the New Zealand effort with 15 points, while Donna Loffhagen ruled the boards with 10 rebounds.

The Tall Ferns forced the Opals into 20 turnovers and enjoyed an edge in offensive rebounding.

Opals superstar Lauren Jackson had dominated the previous encounter but limped out last night after five minutes.

Down by 13 at halftime, a 16-4 run late in the game lifted New Zealand to within three points with two minutes remaining.

New Zealand's week-long camp in Canberra was to finish today. They will reassemble for an international series in New Zealand in June, the details of which should be confirmed soon.

- NZPA