Jet-lagged Tall Blacks fail in final quarter

The New Zealand Tall Blacks have dropped the opening game of their eight-game European Tour to Estonia 58-49 in Tallinn this morning (NZ time).

Shooting guard Kirk Penney scored a game-high 23 points but could not prevent a fourth-quarter offensive drought that saw the Tall Blacks drop their tour opener at Saku Arena.

Penney, in his first game as New Zealand captain, shot 9-of-18 from the field (2/8 3pt, 3/4 FT) with five rebounds in 35 minutes to lead the Kiwis, who arrived in Estonia less than 48 hours before the game, following a draining 35-hour journey from New Zealand.

"To tell the truth, I expected worse," said a disappointed yet buoyed Tall Blacks head coach Nenad Vucinic, who coaches in Tallinn at BC Kalev/Cramo.

"You never put across to the players that you think that but when you've traveled across the world and play an experienced team after just four days preparation, it's going to be tough."

"We expected that we'd struggle to contain their team as well as we did. They're bigger than us and they're more experienced than us. It was a good first performance for the guys."

The Tall Blacks led 49-47 inside the final period but the travel fatigue caught up with them, allowing the final 11 points of the game to fall by nine points as they were outscored 15-4 over the last 10 minutes.

In complete contrast to fourth, it was a third-quarter scoring run that put New Zealand in position for the win.

After trailing by eight points at halftime, the Kiwis started the third period with a 17-6 run to take a 35-32 lead, and were still ahead by two with a quarter to run, winning the quarter 27-17.

"For me, we had to start somewhere," Penney said. "We actually had a chance to win. We had a four-point lead in the fourth quarter, just down the stretch we just didn't execute and we didn't do some things well defensively.

"Really it's what you'd expect from a young team that's only just come together. We've got a lot of young guys, they're going to be good but we might have to go through some growing pains.

"I actually took a lot of positives from tonight. We had a lead in the fourth quarter and if we hadn't made a few bad decisions, we would've won."

National Basketball League Rookie of the Year Tom Abercrombie, getting the start at small forward in his international debut, was New Zealand 's next-best scorer with eight points, to go with six rebounds in 22 minutes.

Mika Vukona pulled down 12 rebounds and had four points, four assists and two steals, but could not prevent New Zealand losing the rebounding battle 48-37, including allowing the Estonians 21 offensive boards. Starting point guard Lindsay Tait finished with five rebounds and three steals.

The Tall Blacks shot 19-of-56 from the field, including a sorry 3-of-20 on three-pointers, and 8-of-13 from the free-throw stripe, and had 18 turnovers for the game.

 "With the game we've got, we know we're going to struggle to score but defensively we played well. They had a height advantage on us but also we didn't box out well enough either," Vucinic said.

"We had a good third quarter and were able to get out in the open court and score some baskets. We had some problems in the half-court. But in the fourth quarter we only scored four points and struggled to get our shots because they were playing some switching defence."

Estonia, led by 16 points from point guard Tanel Sokk and 14 points from Joosep Toome, shot 20/65 FG, 3/21 3pt, 15/24 FT.

Every Tall Black, except Wellington Saints forward Leon Henry, saw game time, with debuts for Abercrombie, 17-year-old Junior Tall Blacks centre Rob Loe and Bay Hawks point guard Jarrod Kenny. Loe had four points, three rebounds and a steal in 17 minutes.

New Zealand trailed by eight points, 26-18, at the half, with Penney leading the way with 12 points in a low-scoring, defensive first two quarters. Penney had nine of the Tall Blacks 12 first quarter points as Estonia led 19-12.

The Tall Blacks shot just 27.3 percent from the field, including 1-of-7 on three-point attempts, and had 10 turnovers and were outrebounded 15-14 at the defensive end in the first half.

New Zealand and Estonia meet again on Friday (4am NZ time) in Rakvere, with Vucinic more confident after seeing what his team could produce.

"I never said I didn't think we could win the game tonight. I expect to win the next game and that's the attitude we're taking. We'll have to improve our rebounding and work on some of our plays, which can take some time. We'll see."

- © Fairfax NZ News