Basketball: Tall Blacks get tongue-lashing from Baldwin

JACKSONVILLE - The New Zealand men's basketball team received a wake-up call and a stern talking to yesterday.

Coach Tab Baldwin was not in the mood to wax lyrical after watching the Tall Blacks fall 110-85 to Puerto Rico at Jacksonville University, two days after they beat the same team at the same venue.

The manner of the defeat riled Baldwin just 18 days out from their first match at the Olympic Games in Athens.

The Tall Blacks were below full strength, with Pero Cameron and Tony Rampton injured and Sean Marks again sitting out the match as he looked to finalise his contract negotiation with San Antonio in the National Basketball Association.

And experienced centre Ed Book played just the first quarter before retiring to the bench with a knee injury sustained in New Zealand's 90-84 win over Puerto Rico on Monday.

These factors cut little ice with Baldwin, who was scathing in his appraisal.

He was furious with his team's performance, describing the Tall Blacks' defence as the worst he had seen. "They played incredibly badly.

"There are no excuses for that performance."

Even without injured NBA players Daniel Santiago and Carlos Arroyo, Puerto Rico played with more intensity to take a 10-point lead in the first quarter.

Shooting guard Kirk Penney, who joined the New Zealanders this week after playing in an NBA summer league tournament, was introduced into the game in this period.

He finished it with the first five of his 24-point haul, and he landed his first of five three-pointers to put New Zealand to within six points late in the spell.

But Puerto Rico extended their lead to 59-39 by halftime after profiting from the Tall Blacks' shambolic defence and constant turnovers.

The Tall Blacks lost Mark Dickel for large portions of the match after the starting five-point guard got into foul trouble in the second quarter.

Puerto Rico were in control for the entire game, their lead swelling to 28 points at one stage before they led 82-57 after the third quarter.

The only saving grace for New Zealand was the fourth spell, which was tied 28-28.

Puerto Rico had enjoyed a 36-point lead at one stage, but baskets from beyond the arc from Aaron Olson, Phill Jones and Penney helped the New Zealanders maintain a semblance of respectability.

Puerto Rico were a totally different side to the sluggish outfit beaten by the Tall Blacks 48 hours earlier.

"They were focused and determined and we weren't," captain Cameron said.

The writing was on the wall from the opening play.

"From the tipoff they scored a lay-up straight away and in international ball that shouldn't happen.

"Defensively we couldn't stop them. If you're doing that you have to able to outscore them and we didn't have that, we missed a lot of shots."

Apart from Penney, Phill Jones was the only other New Zealander to make it into double figures with 19 points. Rookie Craig Bradshaw started in place of Cameron and scored eight points.

Sharif Fajardo scored a game high 25 points for Puerto Rico while Christian Dalmau had 20.

Puerto Rico head coach Julio Toro said his side were far better composed than in the first match.

"Two or three players who didn't perform two days ago responded. We were running more. We were helping more, there was more communication."

Christopher Reay, 19, another new Tall Blacks recruit, showed maturity when marking Jose Ortiz, the Puerto Rican centre who will compete in his fifth Olympics next month.


- NZPA