Tall Blacks take on China at the 2025 Asia Cup. Photo: WANG DONGZHEN / AFP
The Tall Blacks have been beaten 98-84 by China in their semi-final at the Asia Cup tournament in Saudia Arabia.
They will play Iran in the bronze medal match after they were beaten 92-48 by Australia in the other semi-final.
China were up by nine after the first quarter before New Zealand trimmed their lead to just two at half time.
It was the same margin at three-quarter time before the Chinese pulled away in the final stanza.
Guard Taylor Britt overcame a leg injury to top score for New Zealand with 21 points, while Mojave King had 19.
Despite some great open looks throughout the course of the game, the Tall Blacks will be left to rue a tough shooting night.
They were 46 percent from the field and 27 percent from three point range.
Coach Judd Flavell knew it was just one of those nights where the ball wasn't falling.
"We had some great looks that we would continue to shoot again. China, I thought all night they were pretty relentless on the glass, and they shot the ball well. At the end of the day, they made the big shots they needed to."
Not all is lost for the Tall Blacks, whose hopes of winning FIBA Asia Cup gold will have to wait a little longer.
They'll take on the loser of the second semi-final between Australia and Iran in the Bronze Medal match Monday morning at 4am (NZT).
Captain Jordan Ngatai said the team's focus would now switch to tomorrow's third place game.
"Congrats to China on the win. They were a good team, we knew coming into the game it wasn't going to be light. But for now, our focus switches to tomorrow. We can't dwell on the past in a sense, we've got to get ready for tomorrow's game."
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