Basketball: The littlest point guard with the biggest game

By DAVID LEGGAT

Look for the name Angela Marino in the Olympic women's basketball statistics sheet and the numbers make impressive reading.

On the Tall Ferns' improbable march to a quarter-final against heavyweights Australia tomorrow morning, the point guard has been their top scorer with an average 16 points a game; she lies seventh overall in the competition; she is second only to American star Lisa Leslie in turnovers gained; and she has the highest number of minutes of court time (190).

Among her team-mates, only Megan Compain has been better than Marino's 81 per cent from the free throw line; and former Silver Fern Donna Loffhagen is the one Kiwi with an edge in three-point success.

Yet until the Games tournament began, Marino was a complete unknown in New Zealand.

Why? The 18-year-old, born in Waiuku, moved to Australia with her parents, Vince and Caterina, before she was a year old and has lived there ever since.

So how come she ended up in the Tall Ferns at basketball's biggest international show?

Marino was playing domestic basketball in Adelaide, attending Australian age-group camps and had been a member of the Australian under-23 squad when she received an inquiry from a New Zealand junior coach.

Would she be interested in dusting off her New Zealand citizenship?

So she came to a Tall Ferns camp in Auckland, caught coach Tom Maher's eye, played in the pre-Games series against Poland and Korea and here we are.

Marino, who is just 1.66m tall and weighs 53kg, admitted it would have been hard to crack the Australian team.

"They've got lots of girls and I am a bit shorter," she told the Herald.

"One of the Australian coaches said he didn't think I'd be tall enough to play international basketball, so I thought I'm getting an opportunity to go to the Olympics at 18 and I wanted to see if I was too short or not strong enough for international level."

On a purely personal note, proving that coach wrong has been the most satisfying part of the tournament, she said.

The Olympics is part of the reason Marino, a bright, engaging teenager, reckons throwing her lot in with New Zealand was "one of the best decisions I've made".

The other is that her talent has impressed Maher sufficiently for him to sign her for his Canberra team for the next Australian national women's league.

Marino is certain that would not have happened without the Olympic adventure.

And the really good news is that she'll be teaming up with the world's best player, Lauren Jackson, in Canberra.

"If I hadn't come to play for New Zealand, Tom would never have seen me play. It has opened so many opportunities."

Marino is bemused about the pre-Games bustup which led to longtime Olympic selector Bruce Cameron resigning over the Tall Ferns being included in the competition. It's news to her.

"No one in the team seems to be worried about it. No one bothers about what other people are saying.

"Now we've had two wins we're into the quarter-finals and that's a big improvement on the last Olympics."

Basketball experts can debate the quality of the women's event, but a win over Korea 81-73 then the last-second squeak past China 79-77 are an emphatic answer to those who rubbished their right to be in Athens.

Marino has her head in the right place. Basketball won't pay the bills so this year she has started a law degree at Adelaide University. She will work her studies in with her basketball commitments.

A determined streak lurked behind the smile as she insisted the degree won't play second fiddle. "There are so many players who don't have anything to fall back on. I don't want to make the same mistakes.

"When I set my mind to something I want to do it properly - and I want to be a good lawyer."

Angela Marino Age: 18

Height: 1.66m

Weight: 53kg

Born Waiuku

Lived in Australia for 17 years