KEY POINTS:
New Zealand signed off with a 76-73 win over Venezuela at the Boris Stankovic Continental Cup basketball championship in Macau, China, on Thursday.
With shooters Kirk Penney and Phill Jones back on song after a humiliating 63-93 loss to China on Wednesday, the Tall Blacks took control from the tip-off and led 59-50 at halftime.
They had to survive a late rally by Venezuela who had two desperate three-point attempts in the dying seconds to force overtime.
"I was really worried how the boys were going to take the loss we had (to China) yesterday," coach Nenad Vucinic said.
"It was a very, very tough loss to handle, but they came out in high spirits and played well."
After their poor display against China, New Zealand's shooters needed to regain confidence before heading to Europe on the next leg of their Olympic qualifying journey.
"After a loss like that, it's not hard to be motivated for the next game," said Jones.
"We wanted to win at all costs, because we felt we are a better team than we showed against China."
New Zealand were again without captain Pero Cameron and Dillon Boucher, both nursing leg injuries for the match against Venezuela.
Vucinic used another new starting combination, naming Paul Henare and Kirk Penney as guards, Mika Vukona at the swing spot, and Craig Bradshaw and Tony Rampton in the forward line.
Penney led all scorers with 22 points while Jones had 16 and Bradshaw 12.
"This was a big win for us. We needed to get back on the right track and hopefully, we can continue winning now and qualify for the Olympics next year," Jones said.
New Zealand's other win in the tournament was over Slovenia.
The Tall Blacks now leave for Latvia, where they face Belarus tomorrow, Lithuania on Sunday and the hosts on Monday.
Veteran point guard Mark Dickel will join them there and, hopefully, Cameron and Boucher will be ready to return to action.
- NZPA
