Basketball: Tall Blacks assured of quarterfinal berth

New Zealand are guaranteed a spot in the quarterfinals of the Olympic Games basketball qualifying tournament despite not playing in Athens this morning.

Germany crushed Cape Verde 104-68, meaning the Tall Blacks and the Germans are both guaranteed a path through pool play. New Zealand beat group B minnows Cape Verde 77-50 yesterday morning.

The Tall Blacks meet Germany tomorrow morning to decide the final positions in the quarterfinal draw.

The top three teams at the tournament qualify for the Olympics.

New Zealand have never beat Germany in four previous meetings since 2002.

Germany won 83-74 in Germany in 2002 and twice at that year's world championship at Indianapolis - 84-64 in the second round and 117-94 in the third-fourth playoff.

The result was 80-56 in the group stage at the 2006 world championships in Japan.

In the German squad at this tournament are NBA superstar Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks and centre Chris Kaman of the Los Angeles Clippers.

In other results today, Slovenia beat Canada 86-70 and Puerto Rico beat Cameroon 81-72.

- NZPA