Olympic Dream Over
Tagged in: National Teams, Tall Blacks
The New Zealand Tall Blacks Olympic dream has ended.
At the hands of powerful sixth-ranked Greece, and in front of 20,000 raucous pro-Hellas fans, the Tall Blacks were eliminated 75-48 in the quarterfinals of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Athens on Saturday morning.
Guard Vassilis Spanoulis scored a game-high 14 points in a balanced Greek offence, which saw 11 of their 12-man squad score, while Dimitrios Diamantidis had 11 points and eight rebounds as Greece advanced to meet Puerto Rico in tomorrow’s semifinals.
Although up by double digits from the fourth minute of the opening quarter onwards, Greece were not able to fully pull away from the Tall Blacks until early in the fourth quarter.
After back-up swingman Paora Winitana hit a three to shave the lead to 16 points in the opening minute of the fourth, Greece answered with eight straight points, taking the lead past 20 points for the first time in the game and signaling the official end for the 2008 Tall Blacks.
“They’re a tough team,” Tall Blacks coach Nenad Vucinic said of Greece,
“Offensively we struggled. They’re a very very tough team to play, they’re well coached and they’re a powerhouse of world basketball. We did manage to get some open shots, but of the shots we did get unfortunately they didn’t go in.
“If we shot the ball well we would’ve had a better chance but as it was, I was really proud of the way the guys hung in and fought until the last minute.
“They never really dominate us that much, although the score doesn’t show that, they didn’t really dominate.”
No Tall Blacks scored in double figures, with point guard Lindsay Tait leading the way with nine, while captain Pero Cameron, shooting guard Kirk Penney and forward Mika Vukona all finished with eight points.
Penney, the tournament’s leading scorer with 27.0 points per game after the preliminary round, was locked-down by the Greek defence, shooting 2-of-13 from the field, including 1-of-11 from outside, while starting centre Craig Bradshaw was kept to five points but did pull down 10 rebounds.
In a game where the Tall Blacks needed to be near perfect to beat Greece, they shot 30 percent from the field and 21 percent on three-point attempts against a never-ending Greek defence, committed 17 turnovers and were out-rebounded by their much-taller opponents 39-23.
While holding Greece to their second-lowest scoring output of the summer campaign and limiting them to just 4-of-21 on three balls, the Tall Blacks were also held to their lowest total of the season.
The Tall Blacks did hang around for three quarters after falling behind by 13 points in the opening five minutes of the game.
New Zealand’s biggest run of the game – a 7-0 spurt, which included a three from Cameron and a pair of free-throws from Tait and Penney – got them within 12 points at the 8:09 mark of the third period, before Greece answered with an 8-2 run. The Tall Blacks were still within 13 points with four minutes remaining in the third.
“I thought we had a chance, even in the third quarter,” Cameron said. “We were able to do some things that paid off. I’m just really proud of the guys in the team, all the guys but especially a couple of guys, Vukona and Bradshaw, who really hustled.
“Greece are a tough team, very tough defensively. There is not much more I can say.”
Despite Penney going scoreless in the second quarter, New Zealand were able to hang tough, keeping the lead around 10 points, until the Greeks scored seven of the last eight points to take a 17-point lead into halftime.
The Kiwis left easy points at the free-throw line in the first half, shooting 7-of-12, while Greece were perfect from seven attempts.
The Tall Blacks were on the back foot early as Greece rattled off 13 straight points to take a 15-2 lead after 4:28, New Zealand’s only points coming via two Bradshaw freebies. New Zealand turned the ball over four times and missed their first four shots before Cameron hit the first field goal, one of his two three-pointers, at 5:23.
Greece now face Puerto Rico, who defeated Slovenia 81-70, in the second semifinal tomorrow, while in the other semifinal, Germany will meet Croatia. Germany defeated Brazil 78-65 and Croatia accounted for Canada 83-62.
FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament
Quarterfinals
At Olympic Athletic Centre of Athens, Greece
New Zealand Tall Blacks 48 (Lindsay Tait 9, Pero Cameron 8, Kirk Penney 8, Mika Vukona 8)
Greece 75 (Vassillis Spanoulis 14, Dimitrios Diamantidis 11, Ioannis Bouroussis 9, Theodoros Papaloukas 8)
1Q: 12-22
HT: 20-37 (8-15)
3Q: 36-55 (16-18)
FT: 48-75 (12-20)
