The Czech Republic qualified for the quarterfinals Friday after easily going past New Zealand 90-59 in the Olympic women's basketball tournament.
Hana Machova, guard of the Czech Republic, led all scorers with 23 points, followed by New Zealand's guard Angela Marino, scoring 22.
"This game was big for us and now we have qualified," said Czech center Ivana Vecerova. "For us, this was the most important game of the tournament."
The Tall Fern stopped short of reaching the top eight after the match-up.
The Czechs scored inside paint and hit four of six three-pointer shootings in the first quarter to take a 26-12 lead.
"They just came out and shot very good, and we did nothing," said Jillian Harmon, New Zealand's forward. "We are very disappointed on how we played today and some other matches."
"Our goal was to qualify for the next round and we missed it," she said.
After tailing the Czechs 44-31 at half-time, the New Zealanders were plagued by turnovers and had very hard time to break the opponents' defence, scoring only seven points in the third quarter, 65-38.
"They played very good defence on us and we had many turnovers," said New Zealand's Angela Marino.
"Not to let them score in the paint is one of our goals today," she said. "But we didn't listen to the coach and we let them score over 50 points in the paint. It was really disappointing."
The Czechs scored 12 points on the Tall Ferns' turnovers and 14 on fast break.
The Czechs, who placed fifth at Athens 2004, lost to the United States and Spain and had one win over Mali before the game against the New Zealanders.
The Tall Ferns have competed at the Olympic Games twice before, in 2000 in Sydney and in 2004 in Athens but lost three matches in the Olympics preliminary round.
The Czechs will meet China on Sunday when New Zealand will encounter the United States.
"The game against China will be important," said Hana Machova. "They are a strong team and get great fans here. It's going to be tough."
"I know No. 8 (Miao Lijie of China). she plays guard and forward," she added. "We'll play against each other and it will be hard to face her on the court."
(Xinhua News Agency August 15, 2008)