Basketball: NZ fall to Italy

New Zealand suffered their first defeat at the Trentino Cup basketball tournament in Italy this morning (NZT) going down 70-88 to hosts Italy.

New Zealand beat Portugal 98-91 in their opening match yesterday but a poor first quarter this morning left them too much ground to make up.

Down by 15 points after the first period, the Tall Blacks saw the Italians, boosted by United States NBA stars Andrea Bargnani and Marco Belinelli, increase the margin by three points the rest of the way.

Shooting guard and captain Kirk Penney scored a game-high 28 points while point guard Lindsay Tait contributed 10.

Belinelli, a guard for the Golden State Warriors, led the Italians with 20 points, while forward Valerio Amoroso had 18 points.

Penney shot seven-of-20 from the floor, including six of 12 on three-point attempts, and had eight rebounds but was a lone shooting star as the Tall Blacks landed just 36 per cent of field-goal attempts, a comeback from their 65 per cent shooting against Portugal 24 hours earlier.

The Tall Blacks face Canada, who lost to Italy 69-91 yesterday in their final Cup game before heading to Belgium for two games.

Score: Italy 88 (Marco Belinelli 20, Valerio Amoroso 18) New Zealand 70 (Kirk Penney 28, Lindsay Tait 10). Halftime: 46-32.

- NZPA