Basketball: Poor third quarter costs Tall Blacks

1.00pm

New Zealand's fairy-tale run was stalled when the Tall Blacks were well beaten 84-64 by Germany in a second round match at the world basketball championships in Indianapolis today.

Two wins against Russia and Venezuela from three first round matches had propelled the Tall Blacks into the second phase of play against the world's elite.

Having lost to Germany by nine points two weeks ago on their build-up journey to the world championships, the Tall Blacks lost their shooting touch in the second half today.

Key offensive weapon Kirk Penney remained scoreless for the first and third quarters today.

A big hustling defensive effort by the Tall Blacks was not enough to keep them in the match today as a seven-point halftime deficit ballooned out to as much as 24 points.

The Tall Blacks were outmuscled by the physically imposing Germany, who boasted two players over 2.10m. Their National Basketball Association (NBA) star Dirk Nowitzki led the scoring which was boosted by a three-point barrage early in the third quarter.

Within two minutes of the third quarter restart, Germany had stretched out to a 13-point lead and they continued to gather momentum.

The Tall Blacks continued to defend strongly but the transition to offence let them down. Their composure fell away as shots refused to drop and Germany punished the mistakes.

The fourth period of play returned to the even matching of the first half and New Zealand were left to pay the price for a poor third quarter.

New Zealand coach Tab Baldwin was forced to rotate his big men in an effort to pick up the slack left by the enforced absence of key forward Sean Marks.

An eye injury is expected to keep Marks sidelined for the rest of the championships. His role was shared today by Dillon Boucher, Ed Book, Damon Rampton and Rob Hickey.

New Zealand have little recovery time with the daunting task of meeting tournament favourites the United States tomorrow (1pm New Zealand time).

- NZPA