Slovenia Edge Tall Blacks
Tagged in: National Teams, Tall Blacks
A fourth quarter comeback was not enough for the New Zealand Tall Blacks to upset Slovenia on their home floor.
Shooting guard Kirk Penney finished with 22 points and centre Craig Bradshaw 21 points as the Tall Blacks fell to Slovenia 73-67 in their second game at the Alpos Cup in Moribar, Slovenia, this morning.
The Tall Blacks trailed by 11 points at halftime and nine points heading into the final quarter but pulled within two points at 67-65 on the back of a three and two free-throws from Bradshaw.
Slovenia answered immediately with a basket to up by four points, before misses from Penney and point guard Lindsay Tait, who will play his 50th game for New Zealand tomorrow, forced New Zealand into fouling, with the Slovenians icing the game on the line.
In a low-scoring fourth quarter, the Kiwis opened on a 7-2 run, including a trey from Penney and four straight points from back-up centre Nick Horvath.
Penney shot an uncharacteristic 5-of-16 from the field, but did go a perfect 8-of-8 from the free-throw line, and added three steals, while Bradshaw shot 6-of-14 and pulled down six rebounds, and Horvath finished with nine points.
Rasho Nesterovich, an NBA Champion with the San Antonio Spurs and Slovenia’s sole NBA player on a team full of Euroleague stars, scored a game-high 23 points, racking up a double-double with 10 rebounds, while Panathinaikos guard Sani Becirovic, whose rights belong to the Denver Nuggets, had 11 points.
“It’s certainly a good result against a world class side like Slovenia,” Tall Blacks coach Nenad Vucinic enthused after the game, pleased with the defensive improvements made over the last few games.
“They’re very good, they’re always in the top 5-10 teams the last few years and on their home court it’s tough . . . we can’t ever be too happy with a loss but we did, at times, shut down a pretty good offensive team.”
While New Zealand limited their turnovers to 11, a concerning stat for Vucinic remains shooting percentages, with the Kiwis shooting 31 percent from the field and 23 percent on threes, compared to 48 percent and 35 percent from Slovenia.
“The shots still aren’t dropping for us and if we shot a bit better we would’ve had a much better chance to win.
“Shooting is just a matter of confidence. We’ve got good shooters and a good team, we just have to clear our heads.
“It’s a very small margin with shooting and the more you think about it the worse it gets. We just have to relax and knock them down.”
The hosts pushed out to an 11-point lead early in the second quarter before a rush of fouls allowed the Tall Blacks to answer with 10 straight points, mostly from the foul line, to close within one at the 4:17 mark.
Slovenia, then, finished the half with a 15-5 stretch, including threes from Goran Dragic, Miha Zupan and Becirovic at the buzzer, to restore the double figure lead.
New Zealand led for much of the first, up 11-6 midway after a Bradshaw triple, before Slovenia ended the period on an 11-3 run to lead by six points.
The Tall Blacks meet Beijing-bound Iran – who lost 96-71 to Slovenia yesterday and 73-70 to Puerto Rico today - in the final game of the Alpos Cup tomorrow morning (3.30am NZ time), before heading to Athens for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
“It’s very important, we don’t want to go into the first game of the Qualifier with a loss. It’s important and I think the guys know that. I’m pretty confident the guys can come out and get a result.”
Alpos Cup
Tabor Hall, Maribor, Slovenia
New Zealand Tall Blacks 67 (Kirk Penney 22, Craig Bradshaw 21)
Slovenia 73 (Rasho Nesterovich 23, Sani Becirovic 11)
1Q: 17-23
HT: 32-43 (15-20)
3Q: 53-62 (21-19)
FT: 67-73 (14-11)
