Basketball: Embarrassing defeat for Tall Blacks

Dejected Tall Blacks after losing to Canada. Photo / Getty

The Tall Blacks have suffered their worst defeat in Paul Henare's tenure, being shocked by a Canadian buzzer-beater in the semifinals at the Commonwealth Games.

Mamadou Gueye banked home a three as time expired to give Canada a 88-86 victory, and dumping the Tall Blacks out of gold medal contention.

Normally, a loss to Canada would not provoke shock. Canada are one of the best basketball nations in the world - but this particular iteration is not. With all their professional players unavailable, Canada selected a team of local collegiate players, from the likes of the University of Calgary. As a result, they were well beaten in pool play by the Tall Blacks, 80-62, and the Kiwi side were 25.5 point favourites to progress to play Australia in the gold medal game.

They would have been a chance for a famous gold as well. They had nearly beaten Australia in pool play, but instead, they have to face lowly Scotland for bronze, after Canada took out a stunning victory.

Henare believed his side didn't deal with the occasion.

"We always have been a team that has struggled with expectation, especially to win as favourites.

"That is going to hurt for a long time for a lot of those guys, [but] we have an opportunity to win a medal and we will do all we can to make sure we are on the podium with Canada and Australia."

The eventual scoreline flatters the Tall Blacks. They were down by 17 going into the final quarter, after playing some shockingly sloppy basketball. Henare's side coughed up 26 turnovers, well outweighing their rebounding advantage and relatively sound shooting display.

A 30-16 third quarter deficit dug them a serious hole, and it took a storming fightback to even give them a chance. Down 75-56 at the start of the third quarter, the Tall Blacks went on a 20-5 run to get back into the contest with five minutes remaining, and hit the front with a minute to go.

It looked like they were going to claim a miraculous escape when Shea Ili hit a free throw to give New Zealand a 86-85 lead with five seconds remaining, but Gueye received the ball, pump faked, and rose over the outstretched arm of Reuben Te Rangi to quash the Tall Blacks' hopes of gold.

The Tall Blacks should have no problems against Scotland - admittedly a sentence that would have been written with more confidence before the semifinals - but a bronze medal will go down as a missed opportunity. And, for a team that so often meets or exceeds expectations, it will also go down as a failure.