Basketball New Zealand

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Less than 24 hours after their marathon victory over the home team, the NZ Tall Blacks limped to a 69-95 loss to Serbia at the Adecco Cup in Slovenia.

The Kiwis were always likely to be physically and emotionally jaded by their double-overtime heroics the previous night … and so it proved.

However assistant coach Chris Tupu was at pains to not use tiredness as an excuse.

“We’ve got to get used to it. If tiredness was the case we need to be ready for it as we have to play back-to-back at the World Champs in a couple of weeks time.

“We also have to deal with the fact Kirk (Penney) is going to get a lot of attention too,” said Tupu.

Shooter Kirk Penney put them on the board first with a pair of free throws and Tom Abercrombie had them ahead 4-2 moments later. But the next three possessions resulted in turnovers and the landslide began as Serbia went on a 24-1 run.

Forward Novica Velickovic accounted for 13 of his team’s points in succession, including three three-pointers during this outburst.

For the rest of the half, New Zealand were battling just to stay within 20 points. Early in the second quarter, point guard Lindsay Tait brought the deficit down to just 16 and midway through the period, it grew was wide as 24.

At the break, Serbia rode a 59-40 advantage. The Tall Blacks were shooting a respectable 54% FG, but their 12 turnovers had severely restricted their opportunities.

Veteran Phill Jones had collected 10 points on perfect 4/4 shooting, but Penny was struggling for rhythm (2/7 FG, three turnovers).

The Serbians were also pounding the ball inside, scoring freely around the basket, and already had Pero Cameron and Casey Frank in foul trouble.

Less than a minute after the restart, Cameron collected his fourth foul and was again forced to the bench, never to be seen again.

The sharpshooting tandem of Penney and Jones found a little space and began to whittle away at the lead. Jones was fouled while launching from the arc and made all three freebies to close within 16.

Penney hit a three to reduce the lead to 15 and when he connected again moments later, NZ were only 13 down. Another trey – this time from Craig Bradshaw – brought them within 12.

But that was as close as it got … Serbia put on eight consecutive points to extend back out to 20 and New Zealand’s faint hopes of a comeback were dashed.

“Sixty-nine points … it’s enough points to win an international game,” said Tupu. “Our defense let us down tonight.”

Jones led his team with 19 points (6/10 FG, 2/4 3pt, 5/7 FT) and three steals, while Penney finished with 17 points (4/13 FG, 3/6 3pt, 6/6 FT), four rebounds, two assists and two steals.

The Tall Blacks’ shooting fell away in the second half – they connected with 42% FG for the game – and they again conceded 20 turnovers.

“Turnovers hurt us – there was 20 of them and that’s too many,” said Tupu “We let them get away from us and you can’t afford to start slow either. Teams like Serbia will punish you and that’s what they did.”

They face Russia in their final game of the tournament at 3.30am NZ, Sunday.

“The Russians are another good European team with size and skill, and are coached well,” said Tupu. “They pushed Serbia hard yesterday, so they will be tough, but that’s what we are here for.

“We are moving on from the loss against Serbia and learning each time.”

Adecco Cup

Maribor, Slovenia
Saturday, August 14
Serbia 95 (Novica Velickovic 19, Miroslav Raduljica 17, Kosta Perovic 15) New Zealand 69 (Phill Jones 19, Kirk Penney 17)
Q1 33-15
HT 59-40 (26-25)
Q3 77-57 (18-17)
FT 95-69 (18-12)