Tall Blacks Fall In Game One
Tagged in: National Teams, Tall Blacks
The Tall Blacks first step towards Olympic qualifying proved a shaky one.
Behind 14 points from point guard Patrick Mills and 13 each from centre Chris Anstey and back-up forward Shawn Redhage, the Australia Post Boomers eased to a 75-60 win over the New Zealand Tall Blacks in game one of the Al Ramsay Shield series at the North Shore Events Centre on Thursday night.
The Tall Blacks, with the inexperienced trio Lindsay Tait, Jeremy Kench and Michael Fitchett sharing time handling the ball, committed 20 turnovers under intense Australian defensive pressure, which led to 22 points off turnovers.
New Zealand made a colder-than-cold start, shooting 4-of-18 in the first period, and trailed by 17 points after one quarter.
With a switch from man-to-man defence to zone in the second, the Tall Blacks were able to limit the Boomers scoring and excluding that first quarter came out on top 51-49.
“We had 14 turnovers in the first half and six turnovers in the second half,” Tall Blacks coach Nenad Vucinic said. “And 14 turnovers in a half is not good enough.
“We’ve got a lot of excuses for the loss but we don’t want to make any. We just got outplayed out there. They play one of the best defences out there. They’re intense and they pressure. They definitely took us out of our offence.”
Anstey added four rebounds and four steals to his tally as he shot 5-of-9 from the field, with all his points coming in the first half, while Mills had three rebounds and three assists, also making two straight threes that made the game comfortable in the final period.
Tait finished with a game-high 16 points, most of his coming in the fourth as Australian coach Brian Goorjian emptied his bench, while 19-year-old debutante Corey Webster and Craig Bradshaw had nine points and Mike Vukona pulled down 11 boards.
“There’s definitely room for improvement I think,” said a visibly disappointed Tait, who got his first Tall Blacks start with the unavailability of Mark Dickel and Paul Henare, and had three assists and two steals.
“We’ve got to make a lot of improvement to play some very good teams very soon.
“We’ve got to look at it, look at the tape and make adjustments because we’re playing them in 48 hours and we’ll face the same thing again.”
Behind back-to-back threes from Paora Winitana and Pero Cameron, the Tall Blacks were able to close within single digits at 39-32 at the 8:38 mark early in the third quarter but the Boomers were able to answer with a 9-2 run and led by 12 points with a quarter to play.
In another defensive quarter where points were again at a premium, easy points off turnovers were again crucial for the Australians.
The Tall Blacks trailed by as many as 21 points midway through the second period after an ice-cold shooting start, but used a 12-2 run, sparked by a Vukona triple, to close within 11 points before going into the locker rooms down 38-26.
Anstey led the scorers at halftime with 13 points, including the first eight Australian points, while Bradshaw topped for the Kiwis with seven points, while Vukona and Webster had five each.
Anstey dropped two threes, as they took an 8-2 lead 4:04 into the game, while shooting percentages killed the Tall Blacks in the first period, converting only 4-of-18 from the field, and 1-of-8 from distance, as the Boomers used their full-court zone pressure and dead-on shooting to move out to a 26-9 lead at quarter time.
“You could tell they were a bit fresh, they had a lot of new players and it probably took them a quarter to get into it,” Goorjian said.
“But they always play hard when they put on the black singlet and they fought back. We knew they would.”
Vucinic got two of his rookies – Nick Horvath and Kench – action in the first, with Webster starting the second and getting his first international points from a three, also quickly putting a rebound, steal and block on his stat-line, while Alex Pledger got court time late in the fourth.
The Tall Blacks and Boomers square off in game two of the Al Ramsay Shield series in Melbourne on Saturday night at The Cage, tip-off 7.05pm (NZ Time), with New Zealand needing a win by 16 points or more to claim the trans-tasman trophy.
Al Ramsay Shield
Game One
At North Shore Events Centre, North Shore
New Zealand Tall Blacks 60 (Lindsay Tait 16, Craig Bradshaw 9, Corey Webster 9, Paora Winitana 8) Australia Post Boomers 75 (Patrick Mills 14, Chris Anstey 13, Shawn Redhage 13)
1Q: 9-26
HT: 26-38 (17-12)
3Q: 41-53 (15-15)
FT: 60-75 (19-22)
Tall Blacks vs Boomers - Al Ramsay Shield Game One Box Score (22KB html)
