Australia 93 New Zealand 67
KEY POINTS:
SYDNEY - It was one of the lowest ebbs for experienced Tall Blacks, having scaled the dizzy heights of the world basketball top-four and savoured trans-Tasman upsets.
They trudged away from the Sydney Entertainment Centre to their nearby hotel wondering how it went wrong after Australia's Boomers hammered them 93-67 on Wednesday to seal the Oceania qualifying series 2-0.
As the Boomers celebrated their teenage hero, guard Patrick Mills, and eyed their place at next year's Beijing Olympics, the ageing Tall Blacks now have a 10-month wait for a torrid pre-Games qualifying tournament.
Captain Pero Cameron, whose team had been outstanding against Australia in recent years, labelled the feeling in simple terms: "s...-house".
Guard Kirk Penney, who topscored again with 21 points, was equally as stunned after the team's now-familiar third quarter capitulation.
"It hurts a lot, it really does, knowing we had a great opportunity going into halftime with a one-point lead," Penney said.
"To come out and not play the way we wanted in the second half, it was something terrible."
Despite missing nine of their 13 freethrow attempts in the first half, the Tall Blacks somehow led 42-41 at halftime on the back of some inspired Cameron shooting and assists.
But Mills (17 points) and captain Sam MacKinnon (18 points) sparked the Boomers, their defensive pressure squeezed the Tall Blacks into turnovers - 24 in all - and the game was suddenly gone at 69-51 after the hosts won the third quarter 28-9.
"We pride ourselves on shooting and we just couldn't put the ball in the bucket," said Cameron, who scored 13 of his 15 points in the first half.
"Their full court press started to take its toll, they scored a couple of easy ones and then the confidence goes up for them and our confidence drops.
"But we're an experienced team and we should have done better, regrouped and come back at them. It just didn't happen."
Key point guard Mark Dickel was still well short of match fitness after back surgery while Phill Jones' often reliable shooting radar was off.
From three-point range the Tall Blacks could only hit six from 28 attempts, and their freethrow ratio was an ordinary 13 from 25.
Friday's third and final match looms in Brisbane with little riding on it.
Cameron said it was a chance to try and chalk up a win on Australian soil, with not many chances left in the twilight of his career.
Last year's solitary victory over the Boomers in Australia seemed a distant memory last night.
Said Penney: "We're just trying to digest this loss, come out on Friday and play with some heart and know there is something next year that gives us a chance. It's awful disappointing right now."
A dejected coach Nenad Vucinic offered to take the blame, having only taken over the side six weeks ago for the Venezuela series and a tough European tour.
"We didn't play well and we lost in a way that's not appropriate for this team. This team is much better than our last performance," Vucinic said.
"We weren't familiar with what we needed to do when the pressure went on. That's why I want to take all the responsibility because those guys can really play."
- NZPA
