Tall Blacks Reuben Te Rangi Photo: Photosport
The Tall Blacks have been beaten 99-72 by the world number two United States in their first FIBA Men's Basketball World Cup game in Manila, Philippines.
The Kiwis impressed in the first quarter, building a 14-4 lead early against the highly-favoured Americans and ending the quarter down by one, 19-18.
But a high foul count and turnovers stymied New Zealand's effort and helped the United States to pull away after half-time.
New Zealand was led by Reuben Te Rangi's 15 points, while Finn Delany added 12 points & 5 rebounds and Shea Ili had 5 assists to go with his 12 points.
Yanni Wetzell chipped in with 10, Izayah Le'afa hit a trio of threes for his 9 points and 3 steals, and Flynn Cameron added 5.
The Americans out-rebounded the Kiwis 41-33, while also holding New Zealand to just 36 percent from the field - thanks mostly to their renewed defensive effort in the second half.
Captain Reuben Te Rangi reflected on the team's effort over both halves.
"The first half we came out, we had a lot of fight; in the second half we lost a bit of our legs there but overall I think we can take a lot of things from this game and into our next two must-win games," Te Rangi said.
"We need to come out for 40 minutes and have that fight for the whole 40 minutes, defensively we need to take a few things from that game and work on those things we didn't do very well. But overall we're going to take a lot of good things from this game so we can compete against these next two teams."
Coach Pero Cameron said he was proud of his players and they will now collectively shift their focus onto the next game versus Jordan.
"We're always aiming to have a complete game, and it's hard to maintain what you want to do. There's always things you must adjust to, that's what competition is about; along the way we fell in some areas we want to improve on," Cameron said.
"It was a good test for us, a big challenge - and I'm very proud of how we came out and the whole game in general, so I'm looking forward to the next game."
Next up for the Tall Blacks is a clash with Jordan on Monday at 8.45pm NZT.