Basketball: Regrets temper thrill of victory

The Tall Blacks made history yesterday in recording New Zealand's first Olympic basketball win, a 70-60 defeat of Angola.

The New Zealanders were all smiles and high fives when they held on to win, after a storming start had them 15-0 up in five minutes.

Angola rallied in the 11th and 12th-place decider, riding a wave of crowd support to trim the gap to seven points in the dying seconds.

But it was too late to stop the emotional Tall Blacks, the first New Zealand basketball team at an Olympics.

Non-stop guard Mark Dickel, 23, said the Games first was "pretty amazing."

But he felt the thrill of victory was tempered by an inability to put away other teams at the tournament.

"We've been close in a few games, and it was just great to get a win," he said.

"We go down in the books as having won at the Olympics. If we do never ever get back, at least we came here, we competed, and we won a game.

"No one can ever take that away from us. At the same time we kinda felt like we could have done a little better."

Australia have always been in the way when New Zealand basketball set out on the qualifying path to the Olympics.

This time Australia automatically qualified as hosts, giving the Tall Blacks a once-in-a-lifetime shot at the Games.

They were not disgraced in pool play, coming within 10 points of 1996 bronze medallists Lithuania, and 12 of European champions Italy.

Long-serving coach Keith Mair said beating Angola was a special moment.

"It's great, isn't it? We've had a few firsts in the last 10 years," he said.

Angola had come within 10 points of Australia and Yugoslavia in pool play. But they were dogged by poor shooting early, allowing New Zealand to blaze away to a big lead from 19 first half defensive rebounds.

Down 8-30 at one point, Angola rallied to 26-37 at halftime, causing worry lines to appear on Tall Black brows.

Mair brought NBA player Sean Marks back to steady the ship early in the second half. Marks responded with five points in three minutes.

Angola got to 60-67 with 21 seconds to play, then promptly squandered a clear chance for a further two points. And so New Zealand sealed its place in Olympic history.

Mair said it was always hard to coach a side who got a big early lead. Angola's rally had raised doubts in his players' minds.

"You could see the players at the start of the second half," he said.

"They were tentative, it looked as though they were running in mud.

"Getting momentum, running again is very hard, those are the hardest games to win."

Kirk Penney, who landed three of five three-pointers, top-scored with 17 points. Marks had 15, with Dickel notching 14.

Dickel was thrilled to have been at the Olympics, and not simply for the basketball; his favourite Olympic moment had nothing to do with the game.

"Opening ceremony ... I mean, you just can't ... ," he said, lost for words.

"You know, pretty much after that ... I mean, I've played a million games, and this is just more games.

"It doesn't really matter who you play, or when you play, it's just a game.

"The Olympics really are something special."

- NZPA