Basketball: Need to jump to it

The Tall Blacks will go into Wednesday's opening Oceania Championships match with Australia safe in the knowledge that they have revealed little to their neighbours.

With little shown on Friday night's game against the Boomers, the match took on the look of a glorified scrimmage.

Neither team went through its full repertoire of offences, there was barely a press laid on defence all night and signals were kept to a minimum so as to keep the video analysts from having a field day.

On more than one occasion the point guards were seen talking to their coaches while dribbling to see what offence Tab Baldwin or Australia's Brian Goorjian wanted to run.

The Tall Blacks lost 74-84 but tonight's clash with China will be viewed as a more important exercise by Baldwin, as he puts the finishing touches on his preparation before the opening test at Waitakere's Trusts Stadium.

One of the keys Baldwin will identify from the loss to the Boomers is the perennial problem of the Tall Blacks taking to the court rubbing sleep out of their eyes.

It plagued them during the Olympics last year and on Friday they were at their slow-starting worst in Sydney, quickly falling behind 15-1.

"Australia played very well early," Baldwin said.

"It was a bit like our feet were in glue and if that's the case, you'd probably look at the other end of the body for the problem.

"To our players, it's always an occasion to play against Australia and we have to get past that.

"Sometimes, that sense of occasion can make players play differently."

But Baldwin was pleased his side hung tough and it was only two technical fouls against guard Mark Dickel towards the end that helped the score blow out to comfortable for Australia.

Penney finished the game with a team-high 25 points and seven rebounds, also drawing some praise from his coach for his work on defence.

"In terms of scoring, whoever is hot, we try and get it to them," Penney said.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY