Basketball New Zealand

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The window of opportunity remains only fractionally open now for the New Zealand women’s basketball team and their hopes of reaching the Beijing Olympic quarterfinals after a 63-80 loss to hosts China.

Victory over the host nation, as it had four years ago in Athens, would have greatly boosted their chances of progressing to the next stage. Earlier in the day, Spain had done the Kiwis a huge favour by trouncing a highly rated Czech Republic outfit 74-55.

But the Ferns were quickly on the back foot, conceding a nine-point run and a double-lead lead to the home team in the opening quarter. They struck back to close within five, but could not contain China’s inside scoring as the advantage stretched to 17 points (48-31) at halftime.

“If you’re trying to position yourself to win games, you can’t get behind early,” lamented coach Mike McHugh. “Even if you have a good second half, it just drains you trying to get that margin back.”

That pretty much sums up the encounter. The margin became 22 soon after the restart and while the Kiwis continued to plug away, actually sharing honours in each of the third (17-17) and fourth (15-15) periods, the hole was way too deep to extract themselves from.

A three-pointer from Kate McMeeken-Ruscoe to start the final stanza brought the Ferns within 14 points, but that was as close as they got.

“If you look at the Chinese performance compared to Athens, you see a tremendous improvement,” said McHugh. “And if you look at New Zealand is it is not the same team.

“In that team, we had two superstars. Now, we have a good young team, but we don’t have players of the quality of Donna Wilkins and Gina Farmer.

“China do.”

Forward Jillian Harmon and point guard Angela Marino led the way for the Kiwis with 14 points apiece, while Harmon also chipped in eight rebounds.

New Zealand kept their error rate low, committing only 12 turnovers to China’s 14, and enjoyed just as many chances to score as their opponents. The difference was massive 1.96m centre Nan Chen, who compiled a huge double double of 26 points (11/14 FG, 4/4 FT), 17 rebounds and three blocks.

“Nan Chen is one of the best big players in the world and she puts up those numbers against every other team,” said McHugh. “It’s difficult to deal with a player of that ability.”

Four years ago, the Ferns reached the knockout stages with wins over China and Korea in pool play. Now, with a victory over Mali already under their belts, they must overcome a much taller Czech team that were 20 points better during the Kiwis’ European tour in June.

Then, they must hope China can also defeat the girls from the republic in the final round of pool play on Sunday.

But the second-half performance against the Chinese has given New Zealand a glimmer of hope. Earlier this year, at the official Good Luck Beijing test event, they used an encouraging display against the top-ranked United States as a springboard to their first ever win over world champions Australia.

McHugh hopes this outing provides the same inspiration in two days’ time.

“We’re sitting here planning to beat the Czech Republic,” said McHugh. “That is our last roll of the dice.

“It is no different to Athens … we just have different teams to beat this time.”

Beijing Olympics

Wednesday, August 13
Women
China 80 (Nan Chen 26, Lijie Miao 15, Lan Bian 10) New Zealand 63 (Jillian Harmon 14, Angela Marino 14, Lisa Wallbutton 11)
Q 26-18
HT 48-31 (22-13)
3Q 65-48 (17-17)
FT 80-63 (15-15)