-
Kirk Penney - Source: Photosport -
Related
A poor first quarter doomed the New Zealand Tall Blacks to an 88-70 loss to hosts Italy in their second game at the Trentino Cup in Trento on Monday morning.
Down 15 points after the first period, the Tall Blacks only allowed the Italians, boosted by NBA stars Andrea Bargnani and Marco Belinelli, to increase the margin by three points the rest of the way, falling to 1-3 on their eight-game European Tour.
Shooting guard and captain Kirk Penney scored a game-high 28 points, assisted by 10 points from point guard Lindsay Tait, for New Zealand, who got within nine points briefly in the second quarter.
Belinelli, a guard for the Golden State Warriors, led the Italians with 20 points, while forward Valerio Amoroso had 18 points.
Penney shot 7-of-20 from the floor, including 6-of-12 on three-point attempts, and had eight rebounds but was a lone shooting star as the Tall Blacks went 20-of-55 (36 percent) on field-goal attempts, a come-back from their 65 percent shooting against Portugal 24 hours earlier.
New Zealand trailed by 14 points, 46-32, at halftime, Penney with 12 points as the Kiwis got within nine points in the second quarter. The Tall Blacks struggled to finish near the basket, just 2-of-15 on two-point attempts in the first half and 10-of-32 overall on two-point attempts.
The Kiwis won the rebounding battle 38-34 but committed 23 turnovers, while the Italians shot a shade under 50 percent from the floor (32/67 FG) and had 20 assists.
Belinelli was at the forefront of those stats for the Italians, who meet France and Finland in group B of Eurobasket's additional qualifying round in August, shooting 8-of-13 from the field, including 2-of-4 threes, and dropping seven assists.
The Tall Blacks face Canada, who lost to Italy 91-69 on Sunday, in their final game at the Trentino Cup on Tuesday at 4am (NZ time), before heading to Belgium for two games.
