The Tall Blacks' last-gasp Olympic qualifying attempt got off to a rocky start when they stuttered to a 73-49 loss to Brazil at a build-up tournament in Sao Paulo today.
The under-strength New Zealand men's team faced a side bolstered by NBA centres Nene Hilario and Anderson Varejao, and were immediately reminded of the harsh realities of international basketball.
In this first competitive outing of the campaign, coach Nenad Vucinic opted for 32-year-old "rookie" Hayden Allen to fill Kirk Penney's vacant shooting guard spot and moved captain Mika Vukona into Tom Abercrombie's small forward position, with Casey Frank replacing Vukona at power forward.
Momentum quickly swung to the home team, who built a double-figure advantage to lead 19-9 after 10 minutes. They proved especially hard to stop around the basket and established their dominance despite misfiring from long distance (0/8) and the free-throw line (3/8) through the first half.
Without Penney and Abercrombie - their two best outside threats in recent seasons - New Zealand looked like a team trying to figure out who would score. No one managed to find the basket more than once before halftime and, as a team, they shot just 25 per cent from the field to trail 33-16 at the break.
