The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 15

.16 The Sunday Age BASKETBALL WATER POLO theage.com.au Sunday, September 17, 2000 Ppals have a day out fover lacklustre Canada IF BASKETBALL Maureen Fitzhenry IT was the perfect start everyone had hoped for. There was a roaring capacity crowd waving the boxing kangaroo, a pumped-up home team and a score that left no doubt the Australian Opals are on their way to the Olympic podium. Opening-night jitters soon melted away in a superb first-half defensive display that kept the Canadians to 19 points at the break 78 Canada 46 Australia "Whether it's 30 points or two points doesn't matter, you get to wear the chandelier on your head at the end of the game," he said. This is the most talented women's side Australia has fielded. Australia won Olympic bronze in 1996 with eight of the same players.

Those players, mostly youngsters four years ago, have now peaked in maturity and skill. They also have Lauren Jackson, 19, the basketball phenomenon from Albury. "This is so exciting and I can feel that I'm going to be playing realty well, really well," said the 195cm Jackson, who notched 18 points and eight rebounds yesterday. It was Jackson who got the team on track after three shaky minutes of play by sinking two free throws. The two points settled the Australians, who quickly fell into their offence and the Canadians were no longer in the game.

The Opals went into half-time with a commanding 40-19 lead and with 10 minutes to go led 63-33. Stacey Dales, 21, a product of Oklahoma University, stood out for Canada with 13 points, along with tall centre Tammy Sutton-Brown, with t3 points and nine rebounds. Canada were obliterated in the lead-up to Sydney 2000, losing by 40 points in each of three games against Team USA last month and taking a 71-49 kicking from France in Wollongong last Monday. "It gets really frustrating, it really does," said veteran forward Dianne Norman, her team's top scorer and rebounder in Atlanta, where Canada finished nth of 12. "But we have to realise that our goals are completely different I mean, you certainly do feel it on a subjective level, but for the sake of survival you need to look at it objectively." Australia's next game is tomorrow at 9.30pm against the tough side from Brazil, which won silver at Atlanta.

Brazilian coach Antonia Barbosa said yesterday Australia had to be while the Opals had 40. The rest was easy. "Special, wasn't it?" captain Michele Timms said of the defence. 'That's the way we want to play the whole tournament" It also helped that Sandy Brondello was back on fire. After a mediocre game against Brazil on Tuesday, the feisty guard overcame a sore leg to contribute a game-high 18 points.

Timms, the star guard who drew roof-raising cheers, had never believed in home-court advantage until she saw its effect in the American WNBA. Yesterday afternoon, amid the noise of a steamy Olympic Park Dome, she got all the extra proof she would need. "It felt wonderful, really motivational," she said. "1 think it helped me a lot in the first half. It made me realise I deserve to be here." Not that the Opals, with Australian-flag fake tattoos on their arms, needed any help in the 32-point victory that kicked off their two-week journey towards an Olympic medal.

But the Mexican waves and "Aussie-ois" did not hurt The Canadians had a respectable cheering section of their own among the 10,000 crowd, featuring lots of maple-leaf flags. But their 32-point thumping did not come coated in maple syrup. Instead, it was rough Aussie tucker that included being outshot 48 per cent to 36 per cent and losing 22 points off turnovers. The Australian roster played at least 10 minutes each. Play-maker Kristi Harrower said the Olympic atmosphere put.

the already fast-paced Opals in overdrive. 'Td only played six minutes and I was really sucking for air because the emotion takes so much out of you," she said. "It was the first game, there was a lot of nerves, so getting people in and out of the game was great." Opals coach Tom Maher said the point spread was irrelevant. turtratla 2P 3P FT AS 5T TO Ft III CarUBeyd 0-0 12 13 I Sandy Brondtil 7-12 T-IZ 4-4 0 0 111 17:47 Shtllty Sindie 0-Z 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 I I 11:14 HatHaH Sporn 3-t 3- 0-0 10 14 I 15:48 Mkhtk Tlmro 0-0 12 I 13 10:03 Annie la Heur 0-2 0-2 (H) 3 0 I 2 0 16:15 Irish Fallon 2-6 2-6 5-5 0 I 13 0 13:51 Mklnllt GriHittis 2-5 2-5 2-2 0 2 2 1 2 14:52 Krlstl Harrow 2-3 2-3 1-2 5 0 3 0 2 23:45 Jo Hill 1-2 1-2 2-2 1 0 0 0 0 10:20 laurtn Jiclison 6-10 6-10 6-6 2 4 0 8 1 23:54 Jenny Whittle 1-1 l-l 0-0 1 0 0 7 2 26:00 Canada 2P 3P FT AS ST TO RB FL Ml Corl Blaktbrouqh 0-0 0-0 OO 0 0 0 0 2 7:18 Cal Bouchard 1-2 1-2 0-0 2 0 0 2 3 21:33 Kelly Boucher 2-7 2-7 1-2 0 0 5 2 2 26:38 Claudia Brassard 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0 0 2:17 Stacey Dales 5-10 5-10 0-0 1 0 1 4 2 27:37 Michelle Hendry 0-2 0-2 0-0 2 1 2 2 3 14:40 NilUi Johnson 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 3 1 1 16:29 Karla Hacch OK) 0-0 0-0 1 13 1 1 6:52 Teresa Kleindienst 2-3 2-3 1 0 2 1 0 13:33 Joy Mcnkhol 0-2 0-2 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Dianne Norman 3-11 3-11 0-0 1 0 3 3 2 28:38 Tammy Sutton-Brown 5-H) 5-10 3-5 0 2 4 9 5 30:03 Huskies barking loud at Boomers Dave Hughes Huskies aren't just feisty, tenacious, irascible dogs. They're feisty, tenacious, irascible underdogs, too, and relishing the opportunity to take a nip out of a few Olympian reputations, starting with the Australian Boomers this afternoon in the opening round of the men's basketball preliminaries.

It has been a long time since Canadian basketball had teeth to bare. Canada last qualified for an Olympic Games in 1988 and finished a woeful 12th at the 1998 world championships. In basketball parlance, they were a lay-up for opponents. No longer. With a new coach and a couple of National Basketball Association players, the revitalised Canadians are snapping at the heels of the big boys.

Without three regular starters, they lost by three points to Australia and five to Russia in the Olympic warm-up event and by five to Atlanta silver medallists Yugoslavia a fortnight ago. The results initiated the red alert for Boomers coach Barry Barnes, who reckons they will be the surprise of the Olympic tournament and has harangued his players to be aware of the Canadians' potential. "They work hard, their bigs can run and they've got excellent outside shooting," he said. In short, very similar to Australia's attributes. Guard Steve Nash, of the Dallas Mavericks, is their main scorer and Barnes, using the philosophy of setting a thief to catch a thief, will confront him with Shane Heal.

Nash was born in Johannesburg and raised in Victoria, British Columbia, neither of which is exactly a hotbed of hoops. But he has developed into a feared marksman, who connected with a phenomenal 51 per cent of his three-point shots in the Olympic qualifying tournament Another NBA regular is captain Todd MacCullough, as tall and bristly as a douglas fir. The Philadelphia 76ers centre will do in Australia what he does several times a year in the United States and bang bodies with Luc Longley in the paint. What Canada don't have is an abundance of height unlike Australia, and Barnes' plans for victory are predicated on dominating the backboards. Canadian coach Jay Triano, team captain at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics, acknowledged Australia's size advantage.

"They're big inside, really big," he said. "We have to be very solid defensively." Triano took time off from his day job as an administrator with the Vancouver Grizzlies of the NBA to coach the national team in their Olympic bid. Although satisfied with his team's progress in the last year, he says it is now time to convert promise into victories. "We're always competitive, but we just haven't won the close ones against the top teams," he said. "We've been within a single shot but it hasn't dropped." If it does, other more fancied sides will be left red-faced.

Sean Marks, New Zealand's leading Olympic basketballer, will not be re-signed by NBA club Toronto Raptors and is now a free agent it was announced yesterday. Marks, 25, is the first and only New Zealander to play in the NBA. He was the 44th overall pick by the New York Knicks in the 1998 draft and was then traded to Toronto. MATCH REPORTS: WOMEN fat? 1 jv- Jpr if iv I FRANCE SENEGAL 75 39 FRANCE SENEGAL Antibe 13 Ndiaye II le Drean 12 Diakhate 10 Savasta 11 Mbengue 8 Melain II THE Senegal women's basketball team did not quite get to enjoy their requisite 15 minutes of fame yesterday. Actually, it was more like five minutes.

That is the time they managed to stay in front of the highly regarded French. While both countries were making their Olympic debut, Senegal were the crowd's sentimental favourite. But France quickly regained their composure to win by 36 points. Nicole Antibe was the French team's leading scorer with 13 points. Senegal's WNBA representative, Astou Ndiaye, got her team away to a flying start with three consecutive baskets.

She finished with 11 points and seven rebounds. Senegal coach Ndiaga Ousseynou Diop urged his team not to be too demoralised. "We are not expecting to stand on the podium and win a medal, we came here to learn," he said. DAVID KIRKPATRICK POLAND NEW ZEALAND 75 52 POLAND Dydek NEW ZEALAND 20 Ofsoski 13 Cuprys Wlazlak 16- Brunton 10 14 Farmer 8 "PLAYING against a seven-foot woman Is not what you come across every day," said 188cm New Zealander Gina Farmer of her 213cm opponent, Margo Dydek, of Poland. Then again, it is a first for the New Zealand women's basketballers to be at the Olympic Games, courtesy of Australia qualifying as hosts rather than as Oceania's representatives.

Coach Carl Dickel, admitting the Tall Ferns were at the Games to learn, said: "I was really pleased with the way we competed. "We showed that we're good enough to beat the Olympics." Despite a 10-0 run to start the second half, they were not good enough to test the European champions, whose star Dydek was head and shoulders above the New Zealand pack in the75-52 win. Dydek, who plays with Utah Starzz in the WNBA, had 16 points and nine rebounds in the first half and finished with 20 and 12. She will be a tall order for all opponents. STEPHEN HOWELL BRAZIL SLOVAKIA 76 60 BRAZIL SLOVAKIA Arcain 24 Luptakova Oliveira 12 GorJalyova Neves 11 Hirakova 22 19 7 Brazil glamour scorer Janeth Arcain finished in style against Slovakia at the Dome yesterday, landing a three-quarter court hurl for three bonus points on the buzzer as the South Americans won 76-60.

Grabbing headlines is something to which Arcain, who plays with four-time WNBA champions Houston Comets, Is accustomed. But she and her team provided something not usually associated with the free-flowing Brazil -strong defence. Centre Alessandra Oliveira said previous Brazilian teams had not worked enough on defence. Slovakia struggled, especially when the Brazilians set up in a zone. Slovak centre Anna Kotocova said her nervous team could not find a suitable weapon against Brazil's defence.

Brazil, with guards Helen Luz (10 points, seven assists) and Claudia Neves (11, two) giving Arcain (24, five and seven rebounds) strong support, showed they will be a danger for the Opals tomorrow. STEPHEN HOWELL Photo: Orlando Chiodo Si I Rachatl Sporn was one of the Opals to shine against Canada yesterday. Photo: Ray Kennedy Polished finish makes up for a rusty start the six teams in the field and the only country given virtually no hope of winning a medal. The Australians, perhaps a touch nervous in the sport's Olympic debut, made a less than impressive start conceding the tournament's first goal to the rank outsiders. They had several exclusions (when one team plays one short) early in the match, struggled for decent scoring opportunities and did not gain a decisive edge until early in, the second period, when theirf premier player and captain, Bridgette Gusterston, scored her second goal to establish a 3-1 lead.

Still, the Kazakhstanis remained competitive for the most of the match. It was not until the last quarter that the gulf in class between the teams was finally reflected on the scoreboard. With one minute 23 seconds left in the third period, the Australian lead was 4-2. The next goal, to Melissa Mills, made the match safe and it quickly became the predicted rout. Gusterston finished with three goals from six shots, while left-armed Yvette Higgins was the only other multiple scorer with two goals.

Unusually, goalie duties were evenly shared between the Australian team's highest-profile player, Liz Weekes, and substitute Danielle Woodhouse. Overall, the Australians' nine goals were scored from 26 attempts, while Kazakhstan had a poor return of two scores from its 19 shots. In contrast to yesterday's opener, today's match against the Netherlands, the world champions, will provide the Australians with a clear barometer of their form and gold-medal prospects. The Dutch are ranked first in the sport, the Aussies second and the former would be joint or even outright favourites for gold if the Olympics were elsewhere. Not that a defeat today would spell disaster, given that the small field and format of the women's tournament makes it difficult for the Australians to miss the semi-fine's Each of the six nations plays each other once in round-robin, with the two bottom teams eliminated at the end of the five-match preliminary round.

The surviving four teams play off in semi-finals, with the winners then facing off in the gold medal game on Saturday and the losers playing for bronze. Thus, to miss the semis, the Aussies would have to finish fifth at the completion of the round-robin -a most unlikely scenario. The water-polo-specific Ryde Acquatic Leisure Centre, the subject of considerable pre-Games controversy for political reasons, passed its first test as an Olympic venue yesterday. Those who like quiet venues, however, should avoid the preliminary water polo matches (the finals are at the Sydney International Acquatic Centre), or at least those involving the Aussies. With a capacity of 4000 under a roof, the atmosphere is not dissimilar to NBL basketball, with a loud PA system, a noisy partisan crowd and thumping music during breaks, including the mandatory Gary Glitter.

While it was not a memorable match, yesterday was a particularly gratifying occasion for the Australian team, who, more than any other women's team, were at the forefront of the push to have women's water polo included in the Sydney Games a campaign that finally bore fruit in 1997. MEB WATER POLO Jake Wall The first match of women's water polo in Olympic history ended with the type of scoreline everyone had anticipated, as the highly fancied Australians overcame a rusty start to beat Kazakhstan 9-2. The Australians, favourites for gold in the inaugural women's tournament, did not find their touch until relatively late in the game, scoring four goals to nil in the last quarter to turn a somewhat competitive match into a comprehensive victory. This was a difficult opening match for Australia only in the sense that anything less than a resounding victory would be a worrying sign and a defeat would be deemed catastrophic. Kazakhstan, ranked 12th in the world, is clearly the lowest-rated of STObM Watson toeds her Kazakhstan opponent to the ball In ytstarday's Olympic-debut match..