The Tall Blacks' hopes of advancing to the second round at the World Cup are over, after suffering an 83-74 defeat to Greece in their final group C game on Wednesday.
After the first half, the New Zealanders appeared on track to pull off the upset win they desperately needed, riding guard Shea Ili and captain Reuben Te Rangi's hot shooting to a 15-point lead to start the second stanza.
But the Greek's turned up their defensive intensity and turnovers rapidly began to mount for the Tall Blacks, who only managed to score 11 points in the third quarter, as their lead dwindled to four points.
In the final quarter, Greece caught fire from the field, outscoring New Zealand 33-20 to pull away to an ultimately comfortable win.
While the New Zealanders maintained their superb shooting from range at the tournament, sinking 11 three-pointers at a 44 percent success rate, their 21 turnovers were too much to overcome.
Ili was electric in the loss, tallying 27 points, 5 rebounds and 8 assists, while Te Rangi added 19 points on 4-8 shooting from downtown and Finn Delany registered a 10 point, 14 rebound double-double.
For Greece, Ioannis Papapetrou was the star with 27 points – including 8 in the pivotal fourth quarter, and fiery guard Giannoulis Larentzakis added 20.
"What stands out hugely is our 21 turnovers," said Tall Blacks coach Pero Cameron after the game.
"It's something we've addressed in past games and I felt we did a pretty good job early. They were getting too many offensive boards as well, so they were getting too many shots and possessions for them without turnovers - it just made the task a little more difficult in the start of the second half.
"I felt we rallied, even though we had a double-digit lead we were able to keep it at 5-8 mark going into the third. I think that near the end, both teams were exhausted and the communication was average.
The Tall Blacks will now need to regroup for their two classification games against Mexico and Egypt, which will be crucial to their Olympic qualification hopes.
If they can win both games and finish as one of the three highest Asia/Oceania ranked teams in this World Cup, they will be awarded a spot in an Olympic Qualifier series in June next year.
"There's a lot of good things to look at, but ultimately we must focus now on tomorrow's game."
