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New Zealand takes 11th, Cuba ninth Associated Press SYDNEY, Australia -- New Zealand is done with moral victories in women's Olympic basketball. It has its first "W." Tania Brunton scored 17 points and New Zealand, making its debut in the sport, beat Senegal 72-69 Tuesday to finish 11th in the 12-team field. The country with the shortest trip to get to Sydney lost its five preliminary round games by an average of 34 points, the closest a 19-point loss to Cuba. That was all forgotten after the victory over Senegal (0-6). "To be honest, in the other games we were looking for wins within losses, taking any positive we could out of every game and we did some things really well in every game. Playing against world powers, we just don't fare well and that's painfully obvious," New Zealand coach Carl Dickel said. "It's just fantastic for us to get any win, especially a close win like that." New Zealand trailed most of the second half, then took the lead for good at 70-69 on two free throws by Sandy Farmer with 2:28 to play. Senegal turned the ball over on its next two possessions and Brunton's layup with 47 seconds left gave New Zealand the 72-69 lead. Senegal missed two 3-pointers on its next possession and then didn't foul New Zealand as it ran out the final 20 seconds. New Zealand played without leading scorer and rebounder Gina Farmer, who tore a muscle in her upper leg in the 93-42 loss to the United States. Farmer, who played at East Central Oklahoma, averaged 11.0 points and 4.8 rebounds. "We are definitely better when Gina's in there," said Dickel, whose son, Mark, is the point guard at Nevada-Las Vegas and for New Zealand's men's team. "This is going to give us confidence as we face the rest of the world." Adama Diakhate and Astou Ndiaye, who plays for the WNBA's Detroit Shock, each had 18 points for Senegal, which was making its Olympic debut and lost its preliminary games by an average of 36.8 points. Ndiaye finished with team-leading averages of 11.8 points and 7.3 rebounds. Her sister, Fatime, who played at Midland (Texas) Junior College and will play at Rutgers, averaged 4.5 points. African champions have never won an Olympic game as Zaire went 0-7 in Atlanta in 1996. The African champion qualified for the first time in 1996, when the field was expanded from eight to 12 teams. Cuba 67, Canada 58 -- Yamilet Martinez had 13 points and 10 rebounds and Cuba (2-4) outscored Canada 8-1 over the final 2:19 to finish ninth. Canada (2-4) trailed 57-50 with five minutes left, but closed to 59-57 as Stacey Dales, its leading scorer in the tournament, was finally able to get going offensively. She scored four points in the 7-2 run that made it a two-point game with 2:36 left. Cuba, despite having Martinez foul out and missing four free throws over the final 1:45, was able to pull away as Canada turned the ball over twice and missed two 3-pointers in its last four possessions. Maria Leon also had 13 points for Cuba, which was making its fourth Olympic appearance and failed to reach the quarterfinals for the first time. Cuba finished sixth in 1996. Tammy Sutton-Brown, who plays at Rutgers, had 14 points for Canada, while Dales, who plays at Oklahoma, had 12 on 4-for-13 shooting against Cuba's 2-3 zone defense. Dales, who matched Sutton-Brown's nine rebounds, entered the game averaging 11.8 points on 45 percent shooting. Canada, which lost out in a three-team tiebreaker with Brazil and Slovakia to advance to the quarterfinals, finished 11th in 1996. In the quarterfinals Wednesday it will be Australia against Poland; Russia against Brazil; France against South Korea; and the United States against Slovakia. |  | ALSO SEE Quarterfinals set in women's hoops field U.S. women's hoops battles crowd in win over Poland France off to a perfect 4-0 basketball start U.S. women really cruise, blasting New Zealand in hoops New Zealand struggling in first Olympic appearance U.S. women rally in second half to beat Russia in hoops Russian coach blasts Cuba for rough play Depth and defense push U.S. women past Cuba Dydek impressive in Olympic debut for Poland Swoopes, Leslie help U.S. hold off South Korea | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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