Basketball: Tall Blacks lose tour finale

The New Zealand men's basketball team ended their eight-match European tour in familiar circumstances against Finland today, lamenting another fade out as they succumbed 91-102.

The Tall Blacks trailed their hosts 48-50 at halftime in Helsinki but Finland eventually became the latest opponents to capitalise as the New Zealanders were unable to go the distance.

Trailing by six points entering the fourth quarter, a Tall Blacks team playing their eighth game in 12 days, could not contain the Finns down the stretch before suffering the sixth loss of a strenuous campaign.

Captain and guard Kirk Penney notched a game-high 32-point haul but had little scoring support, centre Alex Pledger was the next best with 14.

New Zealand beat Portugal in a one-off match and the first of two tests against Belgium but suffered losses to the Belgians, Estonia (twice), Italy and Canada during a tour designed to prime them for the home-and-away Oceania championship series against Australia later this month.

Finland got a combined 45 points from their starting backcourt of Teemu Rannikko and Petteri Koponen.

Point guard Rannikko finished with 24 points, while Koponen had 21 points and ex Atlanta Hawks centre Hanno Mottola 19 points, which included a perfect 4-of-4 on three-point attempts.

Penney shot 11-of-16 from the field, including 3-of-7 from distance, and went a perfect 7-of-7 on free-throw attempts as New Zealand shot a lofty 62 per cent (36/58) from the floor before buttoning off after the main break.

Pledger was also effective under the boards, grabbing 12 rebounds as the Tall Blacks ruled that facet 38-13.

But turnovers negated that advantage as they coughed up 24 to Finland's 10, enabling the hosts to put up more attempts.

While the Tall Blacks' overall record was unimpressive Penney's haul completed an impressive tour for a shooting guard.

He recorded six 20-point games, including a pair of 30-point nights, bumped his tour average to 24.9 points per game, scoring 199 points overall as New Zealand's top-scorer in all eight games.

The Tall Blacks arrive home on Wednesday and will have a break before going into camp in Wellington on August 18 ahead of the matches against Australia on August 23 in Sydney and two days later in Wellington.

Finland 102 (Teemu Rannikko 24, Petteri Koponen 21, Hanno Mottola 19), New Zealand 91 (Kirk Penney 32, Alex Pledger 14, Lindsay Tait 11). Halftime: 50-48.

- NZPA