Basketball: 'Little guy' battles Chinese

WENZHOU - New Zealand captain Pero Cameron delivered a blow for the comparative little guy, despite his team losing to China 110-101 in the second test at Wenzhou.

At 1.98m and 120kg, you would not usually consider the New Zealand captain "little," but in the company of China's much-heralded NBA front court of Mengke Bateer and Yao Ming, he is hardly a giant.

He gives up 30cm in height to Yao, and in Mengke faces an opponent at least as strong.

But none of that mattered as Cameron battled, at various times, both Chinese stars to a standstill in a physical encounter that produced a total of 66 fouls.

After watching his side lose to the home team by 15 the previous night, Tall Blacks coach Tab Baldwin decided to change the defence, assigning Cameron to battle Bateer and Yao for prime position under the basket.

Yao, especially, had waltzed the taller New Zealanders Ed Book and Robert Hickey around the keyhole almost at will 24 hours earlier, and Baldwin was determined Yao would not have his way so easily again.

Cameron had a quiet game by his standards in the first test, scoring only three points with one-from-11 field-goal shooting. But this time he rose to the task of banging heads, hips, elbows and other sundry body parts with such elite company.

With his captain matching up against the Chinese centres, Baldwin also resolved to use a small lineup far more in an effort to beat the home team up the floor and wear them down.

With this philosophy, the Tall Blacks seized the first big break of the game at 17-12 in the first quarter and trailed by just two, 27-25, at the end of the period.

But the visitors' game plan fell to pieces in the second quarter as they allowed the Chinese to compile 17 unanswered points, spearheaded by a pair of consecutive three-pointers from Li Nan.

"That second quarter was all about lack of discipline," an unhappy Baldwin said.

Behind 60-45 at the break, the Tall Blacks fell 20 behind against more pinpoint accuracy from beyond the arc and conversion of free-throw chances.

But Cameron, who had just two points from a couple of free throws in the first half, compiled 15 in the third period and with longtime ally Judd Flavell, triggered a 14-4 run that put his team back in the hunt at 84-72 down with a quarter to play.

A key to New Zealand's revival was their better shooting from the line. In the first test they succeeded with just 13 from 28 free throws, or 46 per cent. This time, they went 23 from 29, for 78 per cent.

However, their physical approach to the latest match gave the Chinese 50 free throw chances, of which they converted 38, or 76 per cent.

In the fourth quarter, as Book fouled out, the Asian champions went 16 from 21 in free throws to seal the game.

Three-pointers from Cameron (two), Terrence Lewis (two), Flavell and Paul Henare allowed the Tall Blacks to close within seven points near the end, but it was too little too late.

Lewis finished with 18 points, including four three-pointers. Nan led the Chinese with 22 points.

"Whatever we did better tonight wasn't good enough," Baldwin said. "That's the bottom line, we must play much better.

"But we showed that we learned and if we can learn that much in one day, we can learn more in the next two."

The Tall Blacks face China in the third and final test tonight at Qinhuangdao.

- NZPA