Great Britain were defeated 84-63 by New Zealand in a friendly at London’s Copper Box.
An 18-0 run from the Tall Blacks in the third quarter knocked Joe Prunty’s experimental line-up out of contention with the Milwaukee Bucks associate head coach opting to prioritise evaluation over evisceration, throwing his seven new caps into the fray.
Despite impressive contributions from rookies Robert Gilchrist and Will Saunders, the hosts – who trailed 43-41 at half-time – never recovered from being held scoreless for over five minutes in front of a sold-out crowd.
And eventually, the tourists – building towards next month’s Oceania Olympic play-off with Australia – swept as much as 82-59 clear behind a game-high 32 points from Corey Webster to spoil Drew Sullivan’s 100th cap in GB colours before he left the court with 10 seconds left.
“There were positives to take, how we competed in the first half, Drew’s 100th,” said Prunty. “And then things we need to work on: facing adversity, coping when things start to not slide our way, how we deal with it.”
Myles Hesson paced GB with 14 points.
Britain now go into a 12-month hibernation until next year’s qualifiers for EuroBasket 2017.
Updates via Twitter -Â Game stats
Main pic: BB/Mansoor Ahmed
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