Basketball: Tall Blacks buoyant ahead of series

The Tall Blacks flew from Australia yesterday with no further diagnosis available on Kirk Penney's back injury, which will be checked and tested as they train in Auckland today.

There is buoyancy in the squad after their good showing in the four-way tournament in Australia, and the hope that Penney will play in the opening game of the three-match Oceania series against Australia at Trusts Stadium tomorrow night.

The Tall Blacks covered the Boomers' inside run well in Sydney but that left three-point expert C.J. Bruton open. The New Zealanders must counter that and improve their accuracy from all round the floor.

Pero Cameron was voted in the tournament All Star five after producing an average 14.5 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.8 steals a game.

The Breakers will be looking forward to the return of Tall Blacks Aaron Olson, Paul Henare and Lindsay Tait once the Oceania games are over, after they were hammered twice by the Melbourne Tigers: 113-61 in Hobart and 125-70 in Melbourne.

Import Brant Bailey looked good for the Breakers, as did centre Ben Pepper.