Basketball New Zealand

Tall Ferns coach Shawn Dennis (Photosport)

Tall Ferns coach Shawn Dennis believes his young team can improve significantly on their previous performance when they take on world champions Australia in Game Two of the FIBA Oceania Championship for Women tonight in Canberra.

The national women’s team found their taller and more experienced rivals too much to handle in the series’ opening encounter, bowing 48-98 at Porirua’s Te Rauparaha Arena on Monday.

But as the teams prepare for the return match in at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, Dennis is stressing the need for his charges, including seven rookies, to soak up the lessons learnt two days ago.

“Our goal is to reduce the deficit,” he says. “When we looked at the game video, we could see the deficit was largely due to our own play, not necessarily because of what Australia did.

“They did have our guards under pressure and, as a result, we did a pretty poor job of flowing into our offence and we also allowed them to speed up the game.

“We can’t get into that sort of game at this stage of our development … we’re just not good enough.”

The Ferns also struggled to contain an Opals’ big front line that featured 2.03m teenager Liz Cambage, the game’s leading scorer with 22 points.

“It’s tough to compete against that when you don’t have much height yourself, but some of their offensive rebounds could have been prevented and these are things we can fix straight away at this early stage of our campaign.”

Both teams will line up at least a player short for the contest. Kiwi forward Pip Connell has been ruled out with an ankle injury sustained in Game One, while Australia counterpart Rohanee Cox is on crutches after suffering a knee injury.

The game will top off at 9pm NZ time. Follow the action live on SKY Sport 3 or fibatv.com, or view live stats on the FIBA Oceania website.

FIBA Oceania Championship for Women

New Zealand Tall Ferns

Player | Position | Age | Height | Club/School
Kim Barnes | F/C | 20 | 1.91m | UC-Irvine University (USA)
Suzie Bates | G | 21 | 1.75m | Otago Gold Rush
Pip Connell | F | 20 | 1.80m | Harbour Breeze
Toni Edmondson | G/F | 22 | 1.81m | Albury Wodonga Lady Bandits (Australia)
Natasha Hall | F | 18 | 1.83m | Harbour/NZ Academy
Zoe Kensington | G | 18 | 1.71m | Taranaki Trojans
Kate McMeeken-Ruscoe | G | 29 | 1.72m | Townsville Fire (Australia)
Natalie Moore | G | 19 | 1.74m | Taranaki Trojans
Natalie Purcell | F | 26 | 1.83m | Logan Thunder (Australia)
Georgina Richards | F | 20 | 1.80m | Canterbury Wildcats
Erin Rooney | G | 18 | 1.75m | Canterbury Wildcats
Lisa Wallbutton | F | 23 | 1.83m | Albury Wodonga Lady Bandits (Australia)

Head coach: Shawn Dennis
Assistant coach: Kennedy Hamilton-Kereama
Assistant coach: Aik Ho
Manager: Natalie Tong
Physio: Karen Sutton

Australian Opals

Player | Position | Age | Height | Club/School
Eva Afeaki | F | 24 | 1.83m | Sydney Uni Flames
Jessica Bibby | G | 30 | 1.68m | Canberra Capitals
Liz Cambage | C | 17 | 2.03m | Bulleen Boomers
Rohanee Cox | F | 28 | 1.82m | Townsville Fire
Jessica Foley | G | 25 | 1.82m | Adelaide Lightning
Hollie Grima | F | 25 | 1.90m | Aix-en-Provence (France)
Natalie Hurst | G | 25 | 1.63m | Canberra Capitals
Elyse Penaluna | F | 20 | 1.93m | Bulleen Boomers
Alicia Poto | G | 30 | 1.66m | Brno (Czech Republic)
Sam Richards | G | 26 | 1.68m | AZS PWSZ Gorzow (Poland)
Marianna Tolo | C | 19 | 1.96m | Canberra Capitals
Carly Wilson | G | 26 | 1.81m | Challes-les-Eaux Basket (France)

Head coach: Carrie Graf
Assistant coach: Peter Buckle
Assistant coach: Michele Timms
Manager: Renae Maycock
Physio: Rachel McAlister
Physio: Graeme Backen