Basketball New Zealand

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Former Tall Black coach Tab Baldwin (Photosport)

Former Tall Black coach Tab Baldwin was officially relieved of his duties with PAOK in Greece, but has already landed another contract in Romania.

Baldwin’s job had been under threat for a couple of weeks now and his sacking was prematurely announced earlier this month. PAOK management were clearly dissatisfied with the team’s 1-7 start to the HEBA Championship and fired Baldwin after their 64-87 loss to AEK last weekend, appointed Kostas Flevarakis as the new head coach.

But he has already been named to coach U-Mobitelco, currently lying fifth (7-4) in the Romanian Division A.

In US college play, Kiwi-born forward Aron Baynes was perfect from the field in leading Washington State University to a 72-60 win over Portland State University.

Baynes finished with 23 points (9/9 FG, 5/6 FT), nine rebounds and two blocks in 34 minutes as the Cougars extended their winning start to the season to nine games, their best since a 12-0 start in 1991.

Baynes, born in Gisborne, represented Australia at this year’s World University Games, but remains eligible to represent the NZ Tall Blacks.

Meanwhile, the streak is over for Counties Manukau forward Kim Barnes, who missed her first three throw of the season as UC Irvine fell 73-85 at home to University of Nevada Las Vegas.

Barnes had converted her first 22 shots from the stripe, including 10/10 in a pre-season outing, but went 3/4 FT for her three points in 11 minutes against UNLV. She missed two attempts from the field and added three rebounds as the Anteaters’ record slid to 4-5.