Basketball: Germans take Tall Blacks apart outside the keyhole

Germany 80 Tall Blacks 56

Ruthless German marksmanship sunk New Zealand's ambitions at the basketball world championship in Japan last night.

The Tall Blacks went down in Hiroshima after Germany produced an outstanding display of shooting from outside the keyhole.

Following a 70-86 opening loss to Spain on Saturday , the task confronting the New Zealanders immediately became apparent as Germany wasted no time in finding their radar.

Five three-pointers from seven attempts beyond the arc carried Germany to a 21-11 lead after the opening quarter, and the die had been cast.

New Zealand's tactics of forcing the Europeans to shoot from the outside quickly came unstuck as the Germans ran hot.

For all their defensive hustle and bustle, New Zealand were rendered powerless as Germany trusted their accuracy from long range, a gift which eventually accounted for 48 of their points.

In all, the Germans converted 16 of 34 long-range attempts, while New Zealand were paupers in comparison with 33 per cent after a seven-from-21 return.

Even from inside New Zealand could only manage a shooting percentage of 41, which was never enough to threaten Germany.

A slack second quarter in which they mustered just six points left the Tall Blacks trailing 17-38 at halftime.

It took all of three minutes in the third period for New Zealand to outscore their second-quarter efforts before a three-pointer from Phill Jones left them 30-46 behind.

But the gap proved too much for the Tall Blacks as Germany built on that advantage to end the third quarter in charge at 64-41 ahead.

New Zealand entered the match well aware of the danger posed by 2.13m NBA forward Dirk Nowitzki, who ironically went on to miss his opening four shots.

The threats proved to be multi-headed, though, as guards Robert Garrett and Desmond Greene posed constant threats either as linkmen or deliverymen.

- NZPA