Basketball: Tall Blacks bow out in 10th place

By JENNI RUTHERFORD

ATHENS - The New Zealand men's basketball team lost 80-98 to arch rivals Australia early today (NZT) to finish 10th at the Olympic tournament.

It was a passionless display from the Tall Blacks, who had played with immense heart throughout the preliminary round, just missing out on a quarter-final berth.

"The last five games leading up to this have taken a big toll on the team," Phill Jones, who scored 26 points said.

"The expectation on ourselves of winning those games and getting so close and then missing out have taken its toll and today's game was a mere formality. Ninth and 10th -- what's the difference?"

Retiring Boomers captain Shane Heal tore the heart out of the Tall Blacks, shooting 30 points including nine from 14 three-pointers.

"Some of the shooting that he put out there, deflated us," New Zealand coach Tab Baldwin said.

"We had a defence designed to attack them. Initially it started out OK but he put up a couple of shots ... we started to bleed and it wouldn't stop. [Australia] were inspired by Shane's performance. It's his fourth Olympics and everybody understands this is his last one. He was the difference in the game."

New Zealand managed to hold as much as a three-point advantage in the first quarter, but as Heal began to find his range the Tall Blacks quickly fell off the pace.

When Australia went on a 16-2 scoring run that spanned from the end of the first quarter and into the start of the second the Tall Blacks were in big trouble.

The Boomers hit four three-pointers for as much as a 17-point advantage in the opening minutes of the second period and the Tall Blacks finished the half trailing 34-48.

Phill Jones carried the Tall Blacks in points in the second half, scoring 13, while Heal was the main contributor for the Boomers making 20.

By three minutes into the second half Australia had extended its lead from 14 to 24. The Tall Blacks were outscored 18-26 at the end of the spell, facing a near impossible task to recover from a 22-point deficit in the final 10 minutes.

They managed to bring the score back to 18, but without an entire team firing from both barrels, including captain Pero Cameron, who fouled out in the final spell after scoring four points and appearing to have his mind elsewhere, the New Zealanders finished an otherwise stand-out tournament with their worst performance.

The 10th place finish is one better than at Sydney in 2000 where the Tall Blacks made their Olympic debut.

AUSTRALIA: 98 (S Heal 30, M Nielsen 14, CJ Brunton 11).

NEW ZEALAND: 80 (P Jones 26, S Marks 11, K Penney 9).

HALFTIME: 48-34.

- NZPA