QINGYUAN (2015 FIBA Oceania Championship) - There was some good, some bad and some ugly for New Zealand in their second game of the Stankovic Cup on Tuesday in China.

The good was a strong finish to their contest against Mexico which gave the Tall Blacks a 78-67 triumph, while the bad was poor execution on offense for most of the game.

The ugly was the number 25 - the amount of turnovers Paul Henare's team finished with.

The outcome, however, has improved the Kiwis to 2-0 in the competition and left them on course for a spot in Friday's Final.

We were disappointing in the first three quarters of that match, too many turnovers, too anxious in possession and not executing our plays. - Henare

"When we stuck to the play book and trusted our systems, we were fine," Henare said, "but too often we went off on a tangent and allowed Mexico too much latitude – and they are a very good team that doesn't need our help.

"But I was pleased with the way they responded in the final quarter.

"We put a young group out to being the final ten minutes and then our starters were able to get the job done in the final few minutes against some good pressure."

Thomas Abercrombie and Mika Vukona were rested on Monday, when the Tall Blacks ground out a victory over Venezuela.

Both played against Mexico, however, and Abercrombie poured in a game-high 25 points.

Being careless with the ball on offense, however, was what national team captain Vukona talked about after.

New Zealand need to be sharper when they go up against Australia in the FIBA Oceania Championship 15 August in Melbourne and three days later in Tauranga.

"Twenty-five turnovers showed we stuttered along," Vukona said.

"But the guys that ended the game did a great job and showed that while we have suffered some close losses on this tour, we are able to learn from that and close one out, but too many turnovers put us in that situation, we have to fix that."

New Zealand improved to 3-2 on their tour which started in Europe with a victory over Great Britain and then narrow defeats to Croatia and Slovenia.

FIBA