Basketball: Tall Blacks out of World Cup

New Zealand's Tai Webster reacts during Basketball World Cup Round of 16 match between the Tall Blacks and Lithuania. Photo / AP

The Tall Blacks believe they have missed an opportunity to move through to the quarter-finals of the Basketball World Cup.

New Zealand lost in the round of 16 for the third straight world championships, going down 76-71 to Lithuania in Barcelona, Spain. The Tall Blacks overturned a 15-point first-half deficit to momentarily take the lead in the fourth quarter but their valiant comeback ultimately fell just short.

While they pushed the world's fourth ranked basketball nation, Tall Blacks forward Mika Vukona says the team is disappointed to have exited the tournament.

"It's just so hard to take when you're so close...maybe a minute and a half [away from] going through to the next round," Vukona said.

But he has "a lot of pride" for the way his side fought in the second-half after trailing 36-26 at the major interval.

"The boys really showed a lot of heart and a lot of respect for the Tall Blacks jersey and for Nenad [Vucinic] and the coaches," he said.

The Tall Blacks were led by Corey Webster, who was the game's top scorer with 26 points. But he has taken little consolation in the honour.

"We're not satisfied and we're disappointed in where we finished. We had a chance to keep going and we thought we could," Webster said. "We can compete with these teams and we just didn't do it for long enough."

While Webster managed to keep New Zealand in the game, the Tall Blacks were unable to stop Lithuanian centre Jonas Valanciunas at either end of the court. The Toronto Raptors big scored a team-high 22 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and blocked three shots, while affecting numerous others.

Tall Blacks coach Nenad Vucinic says Valanciunas delivered an "incredible performance" and was "the main reason why they won the game".

The Tall Blacks did well to get close after producing their lowest scoring quarter of the tournament to open the game. Lithuania led 23-9 at quarter time after New Zealand only managed to knock down four of its first 18 field goals. The Webster brothers scored eight points on 4/7 shooting, while the rest of the Tall Blacks were 0/11 from the field.

The Websters finally got some help in the second quarter, with Isaac Fotu, BJ Anthony and Mika Vukona all scoring field goals and New Zealand managed to keep in touch. They reduced the deficit to 10 points at the half after closing at the period on a 5-0 run.

Veteran shooting guard Kirk Penney was again held scoreless in the first-half, but played a role in the Tall Blacks' turnaround. He scored all six of his points in the third quarter and some timely contributions from Tom Abercrombie, Anthony and Casey Frank allowed New Zealand to reduce the margin to 58-50 with 10 minutes to play.

Corey Webster then took it upon himself in the final quarter. After closing the third period with a three-pointer, he drained another one at the start of the fourth. Fotu pulled New Zealand to within two points of Lithuania with a triple of his own, before Webster dropped his third three in as many minutes to give the Tall Blacks their first lead of the game with 7:12 left on the clock.

But the Tall Blacks only managed to hold the lead for just over a minute and while they levelled the scores on a couple of occasions, they were not able to take the game away from the Lithuanians, who made the majority of their free throws down the stretch.

The result brings an end to Casey Frank's time in the Tall Blacks singlet, while a number of other players have played at their last World Cup. Nenad Vucinic's future as coach is also up in the air, but he expects the majority of the squad to commit to next year's Olympic qualifying campaign.