Basketball: 'Tall Ferns' stand up to stiff test

By Peter Jessup

The New Zealand women's basketball team christened their new Tall Ferns moniker with a hard-fought and deserved 70-62 win over a physical Chinese outfit last night.

Coach Carl Dickel declared his side "a millennium better than we were last year," praising a gutsy effort which overcame a 16-point deficit halfway through the second spell.

"We weren't competing, we weren't going for rebounds and we weren't scoring for about 10 minutes there. When our defence sharpened up we had the best of the turnovers and loose balls and we started to score," Dickel said.

Put a lot of that down to Silver Fern Belinda Colling and the toughness she brings to mid-court. Julie Ofsoski came to the party on attack and top-scored with 18 points, most in the dying minutes.

The Tall Ferns did it hard in the shooting stakes though, clearly missing their other netball/basketball international Donna Loffhagen, who sat sideline after being up all night with a stomach bug.

Dickel ran his bench well, using the depth in the side to tire a Chinese side just one day off the plane. But it was a good start to the six-game series, the Barcelona silver medalists not quite second-ranked in the world right now but still a major force.

The Tall Ferns took an early lead but it was whittled away by a smarter looking opposition and some deadeye three-point shooting from guard Wang Yingni.

The Chinese kept a tight zone under their basket and despite Dickel varying the team they couldn't crack the taller defence.

The Ferns rushed their shots, didn't compete hard enough for the rebounds and went to the half-time break 28-33 down.

They began the second half watching and waiting and the Chinese put on another 12 points before the New Zealanders had one.

Dickel called time out and barked "wake up, wake up," at his side. The alarm worked, and with eight minutes to go they took a 49-47 lead as the errors evaporated.

The Chinese then resorted to playing the player rather than the ball, a series of scuffles leaving players sprawling on the floor, and the resulting foul calls allowing the Tall Ferns to extend their lead.

The ball rolls on to Taupo tonight for game two.