The Russian national team confidently passed New Zealand 78-56 at the 2010 World Basketball Championship in Turkey to face the United States in the quarterfinals, RIA Novosti reports.

"We did a great job on defense tonight. We were facing the best shooting team behind USA in the competition and we limited them to 56 points," Russia's forward Andrey Vorontsevich, who scored 18 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, said after the game.

Russia's head coach David Blatt of the Netherlands also noted a good defensive game of his team against the Oceania Champions.

"We played a tremendous defensive game, we followed the game plan perfectly from a defensive standpoint," the official FIBA Website quoted Blatt as saying.

"Big congratulations to my players. They played a wonderful game in a pressure situation... The guys deserve all the credit in the world for what they are doing. We have got great performances out of unknown players," he added.