Australia increases lead in junior basketball

Press, 10 September 1984, Page 22

Australia increases lead in junior basketball

By

FRANK DUGGAN

The ever-widening chasm in junior basketball developing between Australia and New Zealand stretched a stage further at Cowles Stadium on Saturday evening when the Australian Institute of Sport men’s team comprehensively defeated the New Zealand Juniors, 71-35, to remain unbeaten in the three-test series.

Earlier, the Australians bad won easily the first two tests in the South Island, and Saturday evening’s competent display con-

finned the superiority of the visitors in its short and unbeaten six-match tour. The Australians were too good. Typical Australian aggressiveness allied with the normal skills and a reliance on the basic defensive pattern, “the Big D,” had the young New Zealanders in all types of problems. The lack of New Zealand skills in mid-court and near the keyhole resulted in a paucity of scoring chances. New Zealand was unable to sort out the problems, mainly because of the

timidity of the guards in attempting the long-range shot and a reluctance to challenge the Australians on the drive. There were sufficient tall New Zealand forwards to score points, particularly Richard Thomas (Auckland), but their pleadings generally fell on deaf ears. The New Zealand guards could not cope with the Australians’ variety of man-to-man and zone defenceoffence and, more importantly, New Zealand did not have a designated centre.

■Thomas would have been an ideal choice, but the New Zealand coach, Murray McMahon, chose to alternate several players in the pivot position, without success, and Thomas was often left filling a variety of roles. He did well and came out of the test series as New Zealand’s most promising junior. The Ponsonby (Auckland) league guard, Tony Complain, has been mentioned as a possible member of the New Zealand team to tour the United States in Novem-

ber, but on Saturday evening’s showing his national debut should be delayed. He played well earlier in the series, but his mediocre per-’ fonnance in Christchurch suggests he has yet to mature. His passing was sub-standard and his reflexes were often slow. Maturity and experience could promote him to a standard sufficient to warrant serious consideration for higher honours.

Of the other New Zealand juniors, Neil Swindale, another Ponsonby league -player, and Robert Watson (Timaru), look definite prospects. Swindale’s youthfulness has still to reach a stability of performance; Watson has the makings of a good guard, but must curb his reluctance to shoot from the point-guard line. The New Zealand captain, Chris England, was a strong figure outside the key-hole, but his lapses of concentration and bad hands overshadowed his good points. Man for man, the Australians were superior, but this is not surprising because most of the players have been together for two or three years. The intensity of training and a collectiveness of skills were evidence on Saturday evening for young men who train together as a squad for two or three hours every day. Apart from Tim Morrissey, the over-all standard of the Australians could have been covered with a blanket Each player, in his turn — only one of the 12 players failed to score points — played his part, mostly at a 99 per cent higher work rate than the New Zealanders, and their defensive techniques always made for a difficult passage to the keyhole. The Juniors could convert only 10 of 28 goal attempts in the first half from the floor and five of 26 attempts in the second spell. Morrissey was a dominating figure for the Australians. He is expected to join a leading Australian league club when he leaves the institute at the end of the year. Scorers:

Australia 71: G. Kubank 15, D. Sanwix 10, T. Morrissey, P. Sexton 9, D. Lucas 8, T. Torrance 6, D. Graham 5, C. Appelby 4, D. Ingram, M. Shields 2, M. Buck 1.

New Zealand 35: R. Thoma slO, N. Swindale 9, D. Smith 5, B. Ryan, R. Watson, C. Sampson, M. Van Uden, C. England 2, T. Complain 1. Half-time: 30-22 (Australia).

In the curtain raiser, a Canterbury invitation team defeated Combined Services, 70-56, after leading 33-27 at half-time. Top scorers for Canterbury were Chris Dobbs (19), John Bosch (14), and Mike Seaward (11), while Steve Nuku was the Services’ highest scorer with 12 points. Yesterday afternoon, the New Zealand Juniors extended its losing sequence to seven when beaten 82-62 by an invitation Checkers side. Checkers led 34-3 at halftime and its leading scorers were John Rademakers and Andy Bennett, both with 21 points, and Kelvin Duff and Dave Usmar, who both scored 12 points. Chris England (13) and Tony Complain (12) top scored for the Juniors. Earlier, on Friday evening the Juniors went down 74-58 to Combined Services at Burnham.