Basketball: Four-point loss spells the end for Tall Blacks' medal hopes

By DAVID LEGGAT in Athens

The Tall Blacks' hopes of an Olympic medal ended at the Helleniko basketball complex here last night.

Needing to beat the top team in their pool, Spain, they came up just short, losing 88-84.

The result means the Tall Blacks won't finish higher than ninth and could end up 12th and last, depending on other results early today.

Losing narrowly has become a habit for the New Zealanders in this Olympic tournament.

Their earlier games included defeats by four, two and seven points, along with a three-point win over world champions Serbia and Montenegro.

They arrived with a medal finish in their sights and centre Ed Book admitted the loss was hard to take.

"It is disheartening coming up with a four-point loss. The guys gave it their all.

"Spain's a classy outfit. They took their opportunities. We made them and missed them," he said.

Having spent most of the game just off the pace, the Tall Blacks finally caught up with the unbeaten Spanish at 81-81 with 2m 40s left in the final quarter, but could not maintain their late surge.

Both teams got off to a scratchy start before a half-full stadium, but Spain found their shooting range quicker and had eased out to a 19-11 lead at the first quarter, which they increased in the second period to be 48-37 up at halftime. The Tall Blacks' best work was in the third spell.

When guard Phill Jones has his eye in, he can change the complex of a game in quick time.

He was hot last night, bagging a game-high 23 points and with Pero Cameron, Book, Mark Dickel and Sean Marks all doing their bit, the gap was down to five points going into the last 10-minute spell.


Cameron, who toiled hard throughout, potted a three-pointer with a minute left in the game, but that was the end for the Tall Blacks.

* New Zealand were left to rue early lapses against the big guns yesterday as they racked up a third successive Olympic men's hockey win only to still miss the medal round.

New Zealand beat South Africa 4-1 to seal third place in pool B behind the Netherlands and Australia.

It means the highest they can finish is fifth, with two more ranking matches to go, starting with either Korea or Pakistan on Thursday morning (NZ time).

Giant defender Hayden Shaw was at it again yesterday, drilling home two of his three penalty corner attempts, while reliable strikers Dave Kosoof and Phillip Burrows added the other goals in a game which saw the teams locked at 1-1 at halftime.