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FROM INDY (DAY 6) - TALL BLACKS FINISH IN A FLURRY
by Piet Van Hasselt
in Indianapolis, Indiana : USA
1. TALL BLACKS FINISH IN A FLURRY
In a must-win game for the Burger King Tall Blacks the
New Zealanders hounded the Chinese on defence to pull out
another trademark come-back victory and progress through
to the Quarter Finals of the 2002 World Basketball
Championships, 94-88.
For the third time this tournament NZ came back from a
large deficit, to log up another scintillating victory to
set up a showdown with Puerto Rico tomorrow. Phill Jones
was the catalyst of the victory bringing his side back
from the dead, with five straight long-bombs in the
second quarter and finishing with 33 points. Full-court
pressure allowed the Kiwis to force a number of turnovers
from the Chinese guards and finish the game on a 24-7
scoring run.
The Tall Blacks looked shell-shocked from the get go,
quickly falling behind 22 points at the end of the first
quarter, 13-35. China was successful on an astonishing
80% of their shots and forward Li Nan was perfect from
behind the three-point arc on all four of his attempts.
The giant Yao Ming showed that he was the real deal going
through the heart of the Tall Blacks defence for 13 first
quarter points.
The second quarter belonged to Jones who got NZ back into
the game, but also got some help from big man Ed Book.
Interestingly the Chinese coach chose to rest Yao Ming
for the entire quarter, so the other NBA big man Menke
Bateer was plugged into the line-up and grabbed four
rebounds. China went into half-time leading 52-43.
In the third quarter both teams traded baskets with Kirk
Penney featuring prominently with 10 points. Rob Hickey
also put in a sterling effort on Yao Ming, holding his
own on the boards and also scoring a key three-point
play. Ming was given a technical foul with three minutes
of the quarter to play for yelling and running at one of
the referees.
The fourth quarter belonged to the Tall Blacks as the
intensity evoked by Mark Dickel and Dillon Boucher spread
to the rest of the team and they were able to score 11
points off of eight Chinese turnovers. The Kiwis beat the
Chinese in the paint and on the offensive glass, to
create more scoring opportunities.
For China, Li Nan was impressive from three-point land
canning eight of his 12 attempts. Yao Ming ended the
night with a perfect shooting record with 8/8 shots from
the field and 11/11 from the free throw line.
The Tall Blacks remarkable form thus far in the
tournament would have to rank right up with the best-ever
achievements in NZ sport, when you factor in the
magnitude of the event, our small population and the
talent and experience of the competitors.
TALL BLACK SUPPORTERS: The Tall Black
supporters dominated the Conseco Fieldhouse with many US
fans not turning up early to watch the game before their
“superstars” took on Argentina. There was only
one Chinese flag on display in the crowd, so the Kiwis
were able to impose their will on the game. The Haka is
turning out to one of the main talking points of the
tournament as US fans want to know exactly what it stands
for.
Burger King Tall Blacks 94 (Jones 33, Penney 19, Cameron
12, Book 11, Hickey 9, Dickel 6, Boucher 2, Henare 2)
China 88 (Nan 33, Ming 27, Weidong 8, Guo 7, Ke 5, Bateer
4, Feng 4).
Rebounds: NZ 28 (Dickel 7, Penney 6, Hickey 6). China 26
(Ming 7, Nan 6).
Assists: NZ 18 (Dickel 7, Henare 4). China 21 (Weidong 6,
Nan 4).
2. COACH BALDWIN DISAPPOINTED WITH SECOND HALF
Coach Baldwin was very happy with the end result of the
match: “This match highlights the fact that New
Zealand is full of talent and what makes talent special,
is the great desire to succeed.” “If anything
all this did was prove this team is full of heart.”
“We protected the ball very well and hustled to
force 22 turnovers, 12 of which were steals. We were
certainly the harder worker team.” Baldwin also
noted that for the first time in his coaching career in
NZ he felt pressure on him to succeed, which he enjoyed.
Phill Jones summarised the game: “It was another
typically slow start for our team. It’s something we
need to work on. China played excellent and shot the ball
well, but it was definitely a game of two halves and we
showed that tonight.”
3. USA 58-GAME WIN STREAK STOPPED – STUNS
FANS
Rounding out a great night for basketball fans, the USA
suffered it’s first ever loss since NBA players have
been allowed to play for the country at FIBA competitions
(World Championships and Olympics) since 1992. The game
proved that good teams can beat great individuals.
Argentina came out on fire and never surrendered the lead
for the entire 40 minutes of the game. They were not
scared of their more famous opponents and the patriotic
USA crowd could not believe the score when the final
buzzer sounded with Argentina up, 87-80. Argentina
controlled the game from the opening tip running their
transition game to perfection. The score at the end of
the first quarter was 34-21 to Argentina. The US players
began to lose their cool with Jermaine O’Neal
stepping on an Argentinean after being blocked by him. By
half-time the visitors had grown the lead to 53-37. The
second half come-back that the American public was
expecting never came about and disciplined offence from
Argentina allowed them to maintain their lead. Emanuel
Ginobili was the star for Argentina with 15 points, but
the key was the outstanding depth of the team outscoring
the US bench 36-22. At the press conference USA forward
Paul Pierce noted that the, “world is against us and
everybody wanted us to fail! We dug ourselves a hole that
we couldn’t get out of.” Coach George Karl
congratulated Argentina and stressed that despite the
loss tonight, “we can still accomplish what we need
to do and that’s win the championship.
This result will no doubt send a clear message to the top
USA players and public that the rest of the world has
caught up with them, and they will need to take these
competitions far more seriously in the future. I’m
sure we’ll hear excuses about their poor showing in
the coming days, including the absence of superstars like
Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter and Shaq O’Neal and the
short preparation time, but no-one can deny that
Argentina was the better team on this occasion.
4. NZ NOW 6-2 IN QUARTER BREAK COMPETITIONS
NZ stretches it’s record to six wins-two losses
overall when our representative won the free throw frenzy
by a score of four to one against a Turkey fan because
there was barely any Chinese fans in attendance!
5. OTHER GAMES
GROUP E: Yugoslavia beat Turkey 110-78, Spain beat Brazil
84-67, Puerto Rico beat Angola 89-87 (2OT) – This
double-overtime thriller had a huge bearing on where
Puerto Rico qualified – if they had lost, they
would’ve faced the USA in the Quarters.
GROUP F: NZ beat China 94-88, Argentina beat USA 87-80,
Germany beat Russia 103-88
6. POINTS TABLES
GROUP E
1. Puerto Rico (5 wins-1 loss) 11pts
2. Spain (5-1) 11pts
3. Yugoslavia (4-2) 10pts
4. Brazil (4-2) 10pts
5. Turkey (2-4) 8pts
6. Angola (1-5) 7pts.
GROUP F
1. Argentina (6-0) 12pts
2. USA (5-1) 11pts
3. Germany (4-2) 10pts
4. NZ (3-3) 9pts
5. Russia (2-4) 8pts
6. China (1-5) 7pts
7. QUARTER FINALS DRAW
Argentina vs Brazil
Germany vs Spain
USA vs Yugoslavia
Puerto Rico vs New Zealand – winner will play
USA/Yugoslavia in Semi Final
8. NZ VS PUERTO RICO
Live on TVOne (Friday 6 September, 12:30pm –
repeated at 4pm).
New Zealand has the greatest opportunity it has ever had
to show the world that it belongs in the same sentence as
some of the world’s superpowers, when it faces South
American side Puerto Rico in the Quarters. A win would
guarantee a top-four finish. Even a loss would give the
Tall Blacks a chance to playoff for the 5th to 8th
places. A top-six finish would guarantee the Tall Blacks
a spot in the 2004 Olympics and mean that they would
avoid having to beat Australia again to qualify. If the
Tall Blacks lose to Puerto Rico, they will have to beat
the loser of the USA vs Yugoslavia match for a top-six
finish. No doubt these games are both possible with the
giant-killing Tall Blacks already proving they can hang
with anyone on the court and comeback form the jaws of
defeat. It’s interesting to note that Australia have
never finished higher than 5th at the World Champs.
PUERTO RICO CAPSULE: NZ Coach Baldwin
noted that Puerto Rico has had a wonderful tournament and
they are physically tough and athletic. Guard Elias Ayuso
is leading the team in scoring averaging just over 20
points per game and big men Daniel Sanitago, formerly of
the Phoenix Suns, and 38 year old forward Jose
“Picullin” Oritz have had great tournaments
respectively. Puerto Rico has been one of the tournament
surprise packages and has claimed wins over Yugoslavia
and Spain in the second round. The double-overtime win
over Angola should sap the team of some of its strength,
but expect a fired up South American team that is keen to
show the rest of the world their form has not been a
fluke.
9. GATHERING AT SOPHIE’S
by Leslie Watson (in Christchurch)
A bunch of Cantabrians got together at Sophies Cafe to
watch the Tall Blacks, including Clare Van Hasselt,
Leslie Watson, Sue & Gerard Bowden Sr., Alaistair
Cree and Ruth Cochrane, Mike Coggan, John Caldwell, David
Perry, Robert Fisher, an unnamed cohort of Mr Fisher's,
and John Inkster (now of Melbourne!). Plus, of course,
Sophie herself and one vocal Chinese supporter. We will
all be on Holmes tonight at 7pm.
LOOK OUT FOR THE NEXT RAMS NEWS: Live from Indy
(Day 7)
REPORTS FROM TALL BLACKS vs PUERTO RICO (QUARTER-FINAL)
OTHER KEY MATCH-UPS ON DAY 7
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