Basketball: Tall Ferns prevail

SYDNEY - New Zealand fought back to win 71-69 against the Australian Institute of Sport women's basketball side in Canberra last night.

In their first major challenge since arriving in Canberra to prepare for the Olympic Games, the Tall Ferns played well only in patches and had to pull back double-figure deficits in both halves.

"I might go and buy a lotto ticket after this, we were very lucky," said buoyant New Zealand coach Carl Dickel.

The New Zealanders defended better in the second half and were led in offence by the outstanding Gina Farmer and Tania Brunton, who scored 19 and 14 points respectively.

Dickel said a major improvement would be needed before the Tall Ferns took on Australia in a one-off match at Sydney's Superdome tomorrow.

He was pleased his side would face the AIS a few more times next week so they could gauge their progress heading into the Olympic Games.

New Zealand 71 (Gina Farmer 19, Tania Brunton 14, Julie Ofsoski 11, Rebecca Cotton 9) Australian Institute of Sport 69.

Halftime: AIS 25-28.

- NZPA

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