KEY POINTS:
The Tall Ferns were left to contemplate setbacks on and off the court yesterday as the end of their Olympic Games ambitions dovetailed with the collapse of New Zealand's only professional basketball franchise.
News the Christchurch Sirens will not be involved in the 2008-09 Australian Women's Basketball League filtered through to Beijing shortly before the Ferns slumped to their third successive defeat in pool B, a drubbing by the Czech Republic.
The 31-point loss was the biggest New Zealand have sustained since a narrow 76-72 victory over African minnows Mali on opening day _ though it is likely to be eclipsed when they sign off against the unbeaten United States tomorrow.
Defeat to the classy east Europeans extinguished any faint hopes of the current squad matching the deeds of the 2004 edition and making the quarter-finals.
Avoiding an embarrassment against the gold medal favourites is now the priority, although nine of the team will justifiably be fearing for their professional livelihoods after Basketball New Zealand confirmed the Sirens were a one-season wonder.
"It's a tremendous blow. We won't get the day-to-day development we need for our young players and the profile of the game is much higher when you've got a team in the Australian national league," said Tall Ferns head coach Mike McHugh.
"Everyone else playing here is a professional player and unless New Zealand can get their players into a professional environment it will always be difficult to come to the Olympics and be competitive."
The Sirens were formed as an integral part of the Tall Ferns' programme for Beijing, and offered a golden opportunity for the country's top players to compete at a consistently high level over the summer.
However, even McHugh admitted the supposed benefits of the initiative were not necessarily evident over the past week.
"I'm not sure we achieved our potential," the Australian said after his undersized team were dwarfed on the scoreboard.
The Czech Republic, fifth in Athens four years ago, and now including the core of the European championship-winning under-19 and under-20s squads of 2001-02, were in control throughout despite a sterling performance from Tall Ferns guard Angela Marino.
She personally prevented an even greater rout with 22 points _ a haul helped by the draining of four of her five attempts from outside the arc.
Captain Aneka Kerr was the only other double-figure contributor, the last of her dozen points coming inside the last 30 seconds.
The Czechs made the most of their height advantage _ guard Hana Machova was the only member of the starting five under 1.82m _ to dominate both boards of the Olympic Basketball Gymnasium.
Machova toted a game-high 23 points and unlike Marino she was ably supported by forward Eva Viteckova (21) while Ivana Vecerova and Jana Vesla weighed in with 14 and 13 respectively.
"Too big, too strong, too quick, too good," was McHugh's blunt assessment after watching the Tall Ferns' frayed quarter-final lifeline unravel.
"We did everything possible that we could do, we had tremendous support from Sparc and the New Zealand Olympic Committee but in the end the level of talent is different."
- NZPA
