The New Zealand men's basketball side suffered their second heavy defeat in as many days when they went down to Greece 99-69 in San Carlos, Brazil, today.
The defeat comes on the back of their 73-49 hammering by Brazil yesterday at a four nations tournament as the team gear up for next week's Olympic qualifiers in Venezuela. The Tall Blacks need to finish in the top three of that tournament to qualify for London and that looks a virtually impossible task without injured duo Kirk Penney and Tom Abercrombie.
Corey Webster is also still serving a drug suspension and point guards Mark Dickel and Mike Fitchett are unavailable from last year's roster, meaning the roster is a young one.
Teenager Tai Webster, Corey's brother, emerged as the leading scorer for the second time in two days against Greece. The 17-year-old was was initially a surprise selection but his strong showing yesterday saw him promoted to the starting lineup against Greece and he responded with 18 points to lead all scorers against the world's fourth-ranked team.
"Tai has got a massive future ahead of him," captain Mika Vukona said. "I really didn't know what to expect from him when he first came into the team, but his composure for such a young kid in this role is great to see, especially with New Zealand's stocks in the point guard position very low.
