Slam dunk: Tall Ferns relish experience despite transtasman result

By PETER JESSUP

Basketball New Zealand manager David Crocker and the Tall Ferns management meet in Victoria on Friday to nut out the team's path to Athens.

The team, coach Carrie Graf and her assistant, Kirsten Daly, are far from despondent after the 2-0 loss to Australia's Opals, who are third-best in the world after recent championships.

The all-up test score is 25-0 to Australia, but the Tall Ferns' 61 points in the last game in Devonport, Tasmania, was the highest yet by a New Zealand side in transtasman contest, and they won the second half 41-40.

"They are disappointed," said team manager Kim Lucas. "They really know now that they can compete with the Australians.

"It was better than last time [2001] but not good enough. They are expecting great improvement from themselves.

"They learned a lot and now it is a matter of continuing with the development.

"We need more competition to keep making gains. We have achieved plenty on this trip and we don't want to go backwards."

Lucas said Basketball New Zealand had agreed to a pre-Olympic build-up.

The Ferns were always short of international competition, and it was likely the team would go to Europe about three weeks before the competition started in Athens.

The Ferns have a tough couple of days coming up. They are in Sale, Victoria, for a tournament that includes the Australian Institute of Sport, Australian women's champions the Canberra Capitols and runners-up Townsville, plus Melbourne club side Bulleen.

They open against Bulleen tonight, have tomorrow off and play the Capitols and institute on Saturday. On Sunday they play Townsville at 10.30am, then face a three-hour bus trip to Melbourne and a late-night flight home.

The game against the Capitols will be an interesting one for Graf, who takes up the head coach position as soon as her immediate commitment with the Ferns ends this weekend.

She will take the Capitols to the FIBA women's World Cup in Samara, Russia, from October 14 to 19 to play against national competition winners from France, Brazil and the host country plus a selection of first and second-year players from the United States national league.

Seven of the Ferns intend to continue playing overseas - Megan Compain in Wales, Gina Farmer in Hungary, and Rebecca Cotton, Julie Ofsoski, Nicki Thompson, Adrianne Gilbert and Aneka Kerr in Australia.

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Pero Cameron's knee and foot tendon injuries continue to mend as expected and he is still on track to come into the Breakers' season about three games in. The rest of the players are continuing with fitness and game-plan work without injury worries and confidence remains high.

They will get another measure of where they sit against the 11 Australian sides when they go to Melbourne for two pre-season games next week - against the Melbourne Tigers on Tuesday and Victoria Giants the next day.

The Breakers' opening-day opponents, the Adelaide 36ers, have lost to both those sides in the past week. They lost 106-83 to the Giants and 132-108 to the Tigers, back from a tour of Hong Kong and China.

In other pre-season games the Sydney Kings beat the Hunter Pirates 123-94 and West Sydney Razorbacks beat Wollongong Hawks 110-96, with Wellington's Ben Knight scoring 21.

The Breakers have indicated they will play more games in Wellington next season if this year's one-off against the Cairns Taipans is well supported.

The club is hoping for a close-to-capacity crowd at the 3500-seat Queens Wharf Events Centre for the first game of a double-header against the Cairns Taipans on October 31. The teams will play again at the North Shore Events Centre on the Saturday.

They also play three games away in Christchurch this season and one in Invercargill.

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Australian star Lauren Jackson, who missed the recent Opals-Tall Ferns test series because of her US commitments, has been named the American league's most valuable player.

The 22-year-old, who is with the Seattle Storm, is the first foreign player to win the accolade; only two foreign-born men have won the equivalent in the NBA.

She is also first player to win the award without competing in finals play, and the youngest-yet winner.