Basketball: Australia beat NZ at Oceania Champs

By CHRIS BARCLAY

GEELONG - Tall Blacks basketball coach Tab Baldwin has questioned his team's desire following last night's concession of the Oceania Championships to Australia.

New Zealand could not withstand a Shane Heal-inspired onslaught after halftime to eventually succumb 90-76, handing Australia the series 2-0, a superior seeding at next year's Olympic Games in Athens and the Al Ramsay Shield, symbol of trans-Tasman basketball supremacy.

New Zealand can grab some consolation by avoiding a series whitewash in Melbourne tonight but the mood was sombre as the squad trooped from the Geelong Arena.

Baldwin's frustrations were tested early as the officiating landed his team in dire foul trouble but after the game he offered no excuses.

"The Australians were charged up in these last two games (they won the first test 79-66 on Monday) and they probably wanted to win the series a little bit more than we did."

Asked if the fact New Zealand had already qualified for the Athens might have lessened their intensity Baldwin said he "would not necessarily disagree".

"Our preparation at times has been lacklustre this year.

"We're a very underdone team in terms of training and games but some of that is of our own making. Guys came in with injuries but these things are just excuses and in the last two games Australia has simply been the better team."

Although basketball had been blessed with two glorious years Baldwin said the challenge was to protect New Zealand's standing after their fourth placing at last year's world championships.

"We have to learn as a developing basketball nation to treat every international as a test match.

"It doesn't matter if it's Papua New Guinea... we've got to play basketball the best we can all the time, we've got to train the best we can all the time. We're still learning how to do that or deciding how to do that.

"Everyone got all excited when we had a couple of good years and they should have got excited but we need to realise that we've got to stick to the task."

Baldwin was encouraged by a 43-39 halftime lead but triple Olympian Heal, who top scored with 32 points, shut the Kiwis down.

"We've got to put two (halves) together. In the second half the Aussies played well, their offense created more opportunities, ours looked slow."

New Zealand was not helped by a crippling (27-19) foul count.

"We were in desperate foul trouble, we were mismatched in the second half."

Captain Pero Cameron and fellow forward Ed Book failed to see out the game while Phill Jones, Dillon Boucher and Tony Rampton also had to be nursed through prompting a rejigged formation.

Cameron exited with two minutes remaining after a nasty confrontation with forward Tony Ronaldson, the biggest flashpoint of a willing encounter.

The skipper said the team was determined to avoid a 3-0 blanking.

"We just ran out of petrol in the tank but it's the same for both teams (tonight). Our motivation is to get a win in Australia -- it's never been done before."

However, Boomers coach Brian Goorjian was in no mood to ease off.

"(Australian) Basketball is in a position right now where it needs the Boomers to be class. It needs the Boomers to perform.

"We had to work on our defence, hardness and conditioning and I gave us 10 out of 10," Goorjian said.

"New Zealand went well in the world championships because of that and we had to match them there."

Australia was rattled in the first half but by limiting the Tall Blacks to just 13 points in the third quarter they took control of the game and got home with relative ease.

Australian Boomers 90 (Shane Heal 32, Tony Ronaldson 15, Chris Anstey 12) New Zealand Tall Blacks 76 (Phill Jones 14, Pero Cameron 12, Ed Book 12). Halftime 39-43.

- NZPA