KEY POINTS:
New Zealand were brought down to earth with a thump when they suffered a 30-point defeat to China at the Boris Stankovic Continental Cup basketball championship in Macau this morning (NZ time).
After beating Slovenia less than 24 hours earlier, the Tall Blacks were beaten 63-93 by their hosts for their third loss of the tournament.
New Zealand got off to a slow start and found themselves 21 points down at the end of the opening quarter and it became a question of damage control thereafter.
The margin was 30 points midway through the third period and although New Zealand got it back to 18 by the end of the quarter, they could not sustain the run.
New Zealand struggled to contain US National Basketball Association players Wang Zhizhi and Ye Jianlian.
"From our point of view, it is very hard to find positives in this game," coach Nenad Vucinic said.
"Our team didn't stop fighting right to the end - it was pleasing to see some hustle categories like offensive rebounds were on our side.
"But it was a case of us allowing China to get their confidence in the first quarter and when they have their confidence, they can be difficult."
Forward Casey Frank was the only Kiwi to score consistently, hitting five three-pointers in his 19 points.
New Zealand's final match of the tournament is against Venezuela who they beat 2-1 in a pre-tournament series.
The Tall Blacks then depart for Europe on the next leg of their Olympics qualifying build-up.
China 93 (Yi Jianlian 17, Wang Zhizhi 14, Wang Shipeng 13, Zhu Fangyu 13, Liu Wei 11) New Zealand 63 (Casey Frank 19, Tony Rampton 11). Halftime: 46-24.
- NZPA
