Basketball: Team walks tall to next challenge

By PETER JESSUP

The Tall Blacks came through their three-test sweep over England injury-free and confident in their ability and are off to Taiwan for further intensive testing of their standing on the world stage.

The English, who arrived expecting a clean-sweep, head home tails between legs - and more complimentary about the local standard.

After a brief and mild celebration of the final game in which they outplayed the visitors for a 93-75 victory, the Tall Blacks trained again in Hamilton yesterday.

Today they head for the William Jones Cup, a 12-team invitational tournament. Their inclusion is fresh proof of acceptance on the international scene and vital matchplay as they build to Sydney 2000.

The most pleasing aspect of the England tour was the continual improvement game to game. England had some excuse for the 65-81 loss first-up in Nelson, given the travel schedule that had them here two days before the opener.

In Wellington, they complained about the refereeing after a 75-78 loss, but the scoreline was a fair reflection of a game where both sides suffered from bizarre calls.

So Wednesday night's 93-75 win in Hamilton was the best possible confirmation of the better side.

The English looked stunned as they stared at a scoreboard measuring the Tall Blacks' margin in the second half.

They could not believe it as the home team continually countered any break they made, scoring one-for-one throughout the game and eventually pulling away.

"The boys played very well," said coach Keith Mair. "It helps when you shoot well and I really think we demoralised them.

"England came out firing, really giving it everything, and when we responded they could not work it out."

Mair nominated Phill Jones, who opened an early lead for the Tall Blacks with dead-eye three-pointers, and Brad Riley, who replaced him and closed the half out with similar accuracy, as his men of the match. The pair nailed 34 points between them.

In centre court, Pero Cameron and Peter Pokai were their usual solid and immovable selves when they wanted to be, and fast layers-up when they chose to be. They took the brunt of the fouls action and pushed the visitors off their game plan.

Tony Rampton and Rob Hickey looked as if they had surprised themselves with how well they could play at top level, and the whole squad can take comfort from a comprehensive performance.

The draw for the William Jones Cup was being finalised yesterday, but confirmed starters in New Zealand's pool are Syria, Costa Rica, host nation Taiwan and South Africa, whom the Tall Blacks are likely to play in that order starting on Monday.

On the other side of the draw are the Philippines, Korea, Japan, South Africa and Malaysia.

The schedule will be intensive, with back-to-back games until Saturday week. "It will be a good preparation for us," Mair said.

The squad come back for the national league playoffs, and an Olympic 12 will be named after a camp late next month.

Tall Blacks: Pero Cameron (captain), Paul Henare (Auckland), Kirk Penney, Brad Riley (North Harbour), Chris Tupu (Waikato), Andrew Gardiner, Peter Pokai (Wellington), Nenad Vucinic, Tony Rampton, Phill Jones, Ralph Lattimore (Nelson), Robert Hickey (Otago), Mark Dickel (US).