Basketbal: Tall Blacks fall to Russian might

Frustration was written large on the faces of the Tall Blacks after they fell 78-56 to Russia in their last 16 encounter at the world basketball championship in Istanbul, Turkey yesterday.

Facing a team with a world ranking four places below them, 13th-ranked New Zealand had hoped to do better than the last championship in Japan four years ago, when they bowed out at the same stage.

But a mixture of foul trouble to their leading players and solid rebounding by the taller Russians combined to deny them.

However, they will take pride from a three-match winning run - Lebanon 108-76, Canada 71-61 and France 82-70 - that put them in the knockout stages after suffering losses in their opening two matches to higher-ranked teams Lithuania 79-92, and Spain 84-101.

"It's disappointing not go through to the next round but I would not say it was a disappointing tournament for us," assistant coach Dillon Boucher said from Istanbul yesterday.

"To win one game at the championship is a big deal but to win three against the quality opposition that we were up against is an amazing achievement."

Russia's size ultimately wore down New Zealand as they broke clear in the third quarter with a 13-0 run.

New Zealand's hopes also foundered when star shooter Kirk Penney and defender Mika Vukona got into foul trouble, both with four to their name early in the second half.

Penney, whose tournament scoring average per game was 24.7 points was well muzzled. He was held to 13 points until the midway in the last quarter before he added another eight points by which time it was too late.

Penney said Russia had done a good job milking the fouls while Abercrombie said the tough Russian defensive pattern had really hurt the Tall Blacks.

"It's quite unsettling to the whole team when you can't be playing in the key stages of the game," Penney said.

Coach Nenad Vucinic told the championship website: "Offensively, things we usually do well we didn't do well. We really wanted this game so badly, we wanted it a little bit too much and we burned out."

- NZPA