utorak, 14.08.2007.
HAKA DANCE U CRIKVI: Hrvatska 77, Novi Zeland 79...
HRVATI SU SE PROBUDILI NA LIJEVU NOGU, A NOVOZELANĐANI SU IM OTPLESALI HAKA PLES...
IZREŠETAO CRO-MREŽICU
PENNEY DROPS
Shooter Kirk Penney believes his Dominion Finance NZ Tall Blacks may have turned a corner in their Olympic qualifying preparation with a hard-fought 79-77 victory over Croatia at the World Cup tournament in Crikvenica.
Penney (26) led the way with 29 points as the Kiwis got out to an early lead and held off a determined comeback from the home team, snapping a four-game losing streak on their European tour.
“Today was a great victory,” he said. “It was such a fun game to be a part of … everyone pulled together and played great.
“Defensively, everyone talked like we haven’t the whole time on tour and it was really a taste of what we have to bring against Australia.”
Croatia are only ranked 22nd in the world, 10 spots below New Zealand, but contain four current or recent NBA players and have qualified for next month’s 16-team FIBA Eurobasket, easily the toughest of the Olympic qualifying tournaments. They were also playing on their home court with stadium full of passionate and parochial fans willing them on.
“In Europe, you have to be careful about rankings,” said Penney. “There are so many good teams and rankings don’t always indicate how good they are.
“Croatia are a very good team … a talented team. This was a good victory for our team – a great one – and it came down to the dying seconds, which was also good for us.”
Since leaving New Zealand almost three weeks ago, the Tall Blacks had been well placed in almost every one of their nine games, but had just two wins over Slovenia and Venezuela to show for their efforts.
“We have had moments on this tour where we have played great,” said Penney. “But we’ve had lapses where combinations might not have worked and for whatever reason, we haven’t got it done for stretches … it’s let us down.
“We’ve had great starts in the majority of games and been up 10, 15 or 18 points, only to see them slip through out fingers.
NEW ZEALAND TALLBLACKS HAKA DANCE...
“It has been a matter of putting it all together … of finding out what works and what doesn’t.”
Their most recent defeat was a particularly discouraging 79-85 lapse against Finland, who are not regarded as a particularly strong basketball nation. With that contest on the line, literally, Penney missed three crucial free throws, so probably owed his team something special against Croatia.
“In a four or five-point game, those free throws would have put us back in the hunt,” he reflected. “Free throws are a given, especially with the amount of work I put in, so to miss them … I was a little gutted.
“We were down. We know that’s a team we should handle quite easily, so to come back on back-to-back nights and pull out a performance like we had against Croatia, really puts Finland behind us.
“It moves us forward towards what we’re trying to do against Australia.”
The Kiwis face Great Britain tomorrow in their final outing before an epic journey through Frankfurt and Singapore to Melbourne for their showdown with the Aussies in next week’s FIBA Oceania Championships. The winners of that three-game series secure an automatic berth at next year’s Beijing Olympics.
The Boomers, ranked 10th in the world, wound up their European tour over the weekend with a 63-85 loss to Turkey (14th).
“We want to get that win against Great Britain and go into the Australian series on a high,” said Penney. “We’ve worked as hard as I can ever remember with a Tall Black team and this is where it is meant to pay off.”
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World Cup Tournament
Crikvenica, Croatia
Monday, August 13
Dominion Finance NZ Tall Blacks 79 (Kirk Penney 29, Pero Cameron 15, Phill Jones 10) Croatia 77
Quarter 26-17
Halftime 50-41 (24-24)
Threequarter 64-54 (14-13)
Fulltime 79-77 (15-23)
New Zealand Basketball
TALLBLACKS
