Basketball: Win puts Tall Blacks in the last 16

The Tall Blacks beat Panama 86-75 last night to earn themselves a place in the last 16 at the world basketball championship in Japan.

After losing three games in a row to Spain, Germany and Angola, they produced a little miracle to overcome an 18-point deficit at halftime and scrape past hosts Japan by three points last night.

That kept their hopes alive and tonight they maintained a steady momentum to slip ahead and remain in front to ensure victory and a place in the knockout stages of the championships starting on Saturday.

New Zealand will only be in danger losing the final-16 spot if Spain lose to Japan today - an unlikely result given Spain's form in the championship.

However, the New Zealanders are in line to face Olympic champions Argentina in their first-up knockout match on Saturday.

Coach Tab Baldwin said his team still lacked sharpness but were finding their groove finally.

"Now we're a more relaxed team and hopefully in that frame of mind pieces can fall a little more comfortably in place," he said.

However, there were aspects that still needed to be tidied up to be able to gain more momentum through the court.

"We're still a little out of synch - some of the passes are not not going to hand, some of the execution both in transition and in our half of the court are just not finding the mark," he said.

"We have one training session to fix that - there won't be a lot of room for error against Argentina."

Baldwin confirmed his team would meet Argentina on Saturday.

Led by captain Pero Cameron, the Tall Blacks worked calmly and steadily tonight and were never in danger of losing.

They led the first quarter 31-25, increased it to 48-38 by halftime, maintained the cushion 65-54 at three quarter time and ensured they didn't stumble in the final stanza.

Craig Bradshaw topscored for New Zealand with 17 points, including two three-pointers, with Kirk Penney not far behind with 16 and Cameron 14.

Bradshaw was New Zealand's liveliest player tonight but was well supported by Phil Jones, Paul Henare, Casey Frank and Mark Dickel.

As last night, Cameron nailed some three-pointers at crucial times, succeeding with four from seven tonight, to regain their double-figure lead each time Panama found some momentum through Dionsio Gomez and Jamie Lofreda.

Baldwin rotated his players regularly from the middle of the first quarter and that appeared to have a steadying influence on the team's performance.

The result knocked winless wild-card Panama out of competition.

Point guard and playmaker Dickel, who joined the team in last night's 60-57 comeback win over Japan, reinforced the New Zealand defence with several steals and seven points to his credit.

Michael Hicks scored a game-high 20 points for Panama.

New Zealand, who finished fourth at the 2002 championship, jumped to a 31-25 lead in the first period and the spread was stretched to 10 points at 48-38 by half-time.

Penney and Bradshaw scored 11 points apiece for the Tall Blacks in the first half, each hitting two shots inside the arc and two three-pointers.

Cameron, who had hit five three-pointers against Japan, began to hit the basket in the third period and scored six points as New Zealand went ahead to a 65-54 lead going into the final stanza.

New Zealand kept the momentum and closed their offensive with two free throws from Dillon Boucher.

- NZPA