Basketball: Pero promises to step up

MELBOURNE - The kingpin of New Zealand basketball is hurting more than most in the Tall Blacks camp as they chase a revenge win over Australia here tonight (9.30pm NZT).

Captain Pero Cameron was all too aware he had an average night at the office on Monday as Australia snatched a 79-78 win in Hobart to take a 2-1 series lead.

His statistics in just over 20 minutes on court told the story: one from seven shots from the field, none from three from the foul line, six rebounds, four assists and four turnovers -- hardly vintage reading for the Tall Blacks' inspirational figure of recent years.

Stung by his own performance and the way his team let Australia back in the match, Cameron gets his chance to put things right in the fourth and final test at Vodafone Arena tonight.

"I was poor in the last game, I shot the ball very poorly, one from seven," Cameron said.

"That's not so bad to shoot the ball poorly but I got caught up in foul trouble and had to play a bit more conservatively. It'll be different (tonight) for me."

Cameron and tall timbers Craig Bradshaw and Tony Rampton have to again try to cause headaches for the Boomers' giants if the Tall Blacks are to come back and square the series 2-2 and win their first match in Australia.

They did the job well in Hobart, out-rebounding the taller Australians 41-35 and mixing it up under the basket as players from each side tumbled to the court in a bruising contest which went to the wire.

Despite the risk of foul trouble Cameron vowed to make life tough again for NBA giant Andrew Bogut, Chris Anstey and friends.

"Whoever we play we're always up against taller players so we have to get stuck into them and be more aggressive. Those guys are taller and stronger... it's coming along but we still need to assert ourselves more."

The concern is Australia have put their rusty early series showings behind them as coach Brian Goorjian gave all his younger players court time ahead of next month's world championships.

The Tall Blacks should have put the Boomers away after leading by 19 points at one stage and still having a handy 45-31halftime lead, but instead the hosts got a welcome confidence boost with their late rally in Hobart.

"We let something that was very much in our control slip away. It's tough to deal with, our first ever win in Aussie was in our hands and we let it go," Cameron said.

"Our focus is still preparation, doing what it takes to be ready for the world championships, but winning is part of preparing. We've got to learn to win those close ones, learn to put the hammer down when we're up. We didn't do either of those."

There was also injury doubts around key men Phill Jones, New Zealand's topscorer in the past two matches, and point guard Mark Dickel.

Jones sprained his ankle on Monday and had it heavily strapped yesterday while Dickel was recovering from heavy knocks to his head and knee, Cameron said.

Both played a limited part in training yesterday and would be assessed just before tip-off, although neither had been ruled out.

- NZPA