Corey Webster. Photo / Getty
The Tall Blacks are holding to slim hopes of an Olympic berth after a 71-59 defeat at the hands of Australia overnight.
The Paul Henare-coached side put in an excellent showing at Melbourne's Rod Laver Arena, fighting extremely hard against a fearsome Boomers side in the first game of their two-game Olympic qualifying series.
Although a second chance of Olympic qualification is available through a European qualifying tournament next year, the best path to direct entry is now for the Kiwi squad, and a late run from the Boomers cut what were sizeable hopes of overturning the first leg deficit into an outside chance.
A 10-1 run to cap off the game gave the Boomers a 12 point buffer heading into Tuesday's re-match in Wellington - a buffer which has been overturned before, but will be a tough ask against a quality outfit.
Corey Webster was the star on the night for the Tall Blacks with 22 points, but big offensive contributions from Patty Mills and David Andersen (17 apiece) and Matthew Dellavedova (15 points, five rebounds and four assists) got the Boomers over the line.
With the pre-game festivities highlighted by a fearsome haka, the Tall Blacks shot out to an early 13-6 lead, taking advantage of a Boomers outfit which had left Mills on the bench. Andrej Lemanis' side were looking to use their size advantage inside, but only managed to produce inefficient post-ups and turn-around jumpers early on.
With the hosts shooting just 35%, the Tall Blacks took a 16-12 lead into the break, with their strong defensive effort being matched by cleaning the glass - Isaac Fotu in particular crashing the boards with manic intent.
The first half turned with the introduction of Mills, who started jacking up shots with careless abandon, putting up nine shots in his first seven minutes as the Tall Blacks looked to aggressively hedge on the pick and roll.
Webster was having to work intensely for his shots, and as a result the Tall Blacks had to look for secondary options, with just 10 second-quarter points seeing the Tall Blacks slip into a 32-26 halftime deficit.
Despite running some complex offensive sets from Paul Henare's playbook, the Tall Blacks' offence was matched by Andersen, who hit some tough looks to stretch the Tall Blacks' deficit into double figures.
However, Webster managed to create some room, mixing an array of floaters and step-back jumpers to separate himself from the Australian pressure defence. He had nine third quarter points, getting help with triples from Loe and Reuben Te Rangi as they went into the final period down 49-44.
The quarter break didn't halt his run either, with two more jumpers off pin-downs cutting Australia's lead to just three, and consistent double teams couldn't stop another banked lay-up. On the other end, hectic pressure defence created Australian turnovers as the game tightened up going into the crunch minutes.
Those crunch minutes was where Mills stepped up, hitting a pull-up triple in transition before flying off a screen to splash home another three. Surprisingly, the man to match him was Kenny, with the defensive master hitting two big shots from downtown.
It wasn't to be for the plucky underdogs though, with the Boomers coming up with some big late buckets to firstly grab the win, and secondly stretch the lead to a tough deficit for the Tall Blacks to overcome on Tuesday.