Basketball: Ferns wilt under Korean pressure

By PETER JESSUP

The Tall Ferns lost belief in their own ability and crumbled to a 62-101 loss to South Korea yesterday after a start that had them in command and the Koreans scared.

By the end they had missed too many shots to win, their scoring percentage well below the opposition's.

Coach Carl Dickel admitted that was the team's Achilles heel but complimented the Koreans on a complete game.``It was a long afternoon for us,'' Dickel said.

``We rarely play the Asians and as you saw, they're not a good match for us. I have to compliment them on the way they kept running at us, kept shooting threes. We just found it too much.''

There was a good-sized crowd of Kiwis in the stands at the Dome but they never coordinated a national cheer, other than in response to the announcer asking for one.

The Korean fans, on the other hand, were seated in four large blocks, all in conforming uniform, with flags, drums, and chants led by cheerleaders clad in everything ranging from traditional neck-to-floor costume to go-go short skirts.

It was New Zealand's game for the first 10 minutes. The Koreans pulled back to the 15-all but had clearly been rattled, and admitted as much afterwards.

They called a time-out, began distributing the ball to shooters on both sides of the court and started scoring around the Ferns rather than trying to go through them.

New Zealand's top scorer, Gina Farmer, with 20, said the Ferns had trouble coping with the Koreans' speed.

``We always struggle against the Asian style, they're very fast and they all shoot very well.''

Once the Koreans went outside they quickly rattled on points, and went to the break 48-25 up. The Ferns came back rejuvenated and closed the gap but the parity did not last long.

A spree of three-pointers from the Koreans opened it up again at the end.``We were kind of nervous at how well they started,'' said Korean coach Soo Jong Yoo.

``Their players were very strong. But after 10 minutes we played more aggressively and that's why we had that excellent result.''

Dickel used up all his time-outs and made plenty of substitutions to keep the Ferns fresh but they just could not match the Koreans for shooting accuracy.

They won the statistics battle easily: field goals, 35 from 63, the Ferns 24 from 67 ; three-pointers, 10 from 29, the Ferns one from seven; the Koreans made 21 of 26 free-throws, the Ferns 13 of 21.

The Koreans scored 16 fast-break points, New Zealand none.Tania Brunton and Julie Ofsoski were next-best scorers after Farmer, each with 11.

The others struggled to score, the guards working themselves to a standstill on defence and apparently having little left for attack.

Netballers Belinda Colling and Donna Loffhagen were again low in minutes on court, the former 10m 16s for three points, the latter 9m 20s for five.

Dickel denied they were being found out, given they're not 100 per cent basketballers.

``They've devoted themselves to basketball _ they're not being found out any worse than any of the others. Their dedication is the equal of anyone else.''

It was lack of international play and the development of the skill of shooting under pressure that cost, Dickel said.

``We're not as accurate as we'd like. In international basketball that's the skill you get found out in quickest.''Guard Megan Compain, who turned 25 yesterday, said the result was disappointing.

``We've had a bit of experience against Asian teams in the last two years so we thought we would be a little more familiar with their style of play. Unfortunately they were just so unbelievably quick and we didn't adjust to it well initially.''