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BEIJING - There's no such thing as a good friend when it comes to Olympic women's basketball, Tall Ferns coach Mike McHugh admitted with a wry smile yesterday.
His team had just been comprehensively outplayed 80-63 by China in their preliminary round match, and McHugh was musing on
the irony of matching wits with China coach and long-time friend Tom Maher.
McHugh was technical adviser to the Maher-coached Tall Ferns when they finished eighth at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
"Tom Maher and I go back 20 years, and we're good friends. but basketball games last 40 minutes, and there's no forgiveness out there," McHugh said afterwards.
The New Zealanders started well yesterday, but soon ran into trouble containing a well-drilled Chinese team boosted by the vocal support of a boisterous local crowd.
Former triathlete Chen Nan played nearly three-quarters of the game for China, the 1.98m centre top-scoring with 26 points while captain Miao Liijie added 15.
Feisty guard Angela Marino topped the Tall Ferns scoring along with Jillian Harmon on 14, but the New Zealanders' shooting percentages didn't stand up to closer scrutiny.
Trailing 18-26 at the end of the first quarter and down 31-50 at haftime, the Tall Ferns dug in deep for the second 20 minutes, and actually managed to win the second half 32-30.
McHugh said his team operated at a distinct height disadvantage against the lofty Chinese, who as well as Chen could count on three other players over 1.93m.
After well-performed centre Jessica McCormack (1.94m), the three next tallest Tall Ferns are all around 1.83m.
"That's a battle we've always face - we're always playing bigger players and trying to find a way to get the little guy to beat the big guy," McHugh said.
"We got off to a reasonable start against China, but we just couldn't sustain it. Once they got a roll going, we were just battling away. We'd miss a shot, they'd get the rebound; they'd miss a shot, they'd get the rebound."
McHugh said he was particularly pleased with the effort of United States-based player Harmon.
"I thought she had a very fine game again - she's been our best player through the tournament. Angela Marino got some massive points but she took a lot of shots to get them.
"That's the whole thing, our shooting percentages are nowhere near the teams we're playing. In one way you could say we're here to learn, and we'll be better in 2012 but that's not what we're looking for - we want a quarterfinal berth."
The chances of that aren't looking too likely, after losses to China and Spain (62-85), and a 76-72 win over Mali so far. McHugh has now targeted Friday's game against an out-of-sorts Czech Republic as the Tall Ferns' best chance of a win, with Sunday's match against hot favourites America probably out of reach.
"The Czech Republic aren't playing well. We'll have the same disadvantage in terms of their physical stature, but they haven't played well in the tournament," McHugh said.
"I think they're the fourth-best team in the world but they're not playing like it all - they're playing like the 16th best team in the world, which is us."
- NZPA
