TAIPEI CITY (2015 FIBA Oceania Women's Championship) - New Zealand's Tall Ferns have endured a difficult spell in their preparations for the FIBA Oceania Women's Championship with a pair of defeats at the start of the William Jones Cup in Chinese Taipei.

Less than three weeks away from the start of the Oceania series against Australia in Melbourne (15 August) and Tauranga (17 August) when a spot in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics will be at stake, the New Zealanders have fallen to Chinese Taipei B and a Japanese national side.

The hosts won the first game against the Tall Ferns, 77-66.

"We are disappointed with the loss but see this as building the team for the Oceania Championship and with it being our first hit out, we've identified areas we can fix," Tall Ferns veteran Natalie Taylor said.

Coach Kennedy Kereama was concerned about the lack of execution on offense.

We have to improve playing smaller opposition in Asia that will play zone against us. - Kereama

"Also have to take care of the ball, too many errors," Kereama said.

With that in mind, a second loss to a Japan side on Tuesday, 78-66, will have caused some concern.

Kereama inserted guard Stella Beck into the starting lineup for Samara Gallaher but the Tall Ferns still ended up turning the ball over 31 times.

The coach will be mulling over his options.

Only able to take 12 players on tour, he omitted Hutt Valley guard Jacinta Beckley and Hawkes Bay forward Josie Stockill from the squad of 14 players that had spent the six days at a training camp in South Auckland.

"Jacinta and Josie have done nothing wrong in camp this week," Kereama said, "but we could only take 12 players to Taiwan.

"Both players will join us in Christchurch for the three-game series against Japan.

"They have the opportunity now to return home, freshen up, work on one or two aspects of their game that the coaching staff have highlighted and then return and put pressure on the incumbents."

The players that have travelled to Chinese Taipei are Micaela Cocks, Jordan Hunter, Stella Beck, Samara Gallaher, Natalie Taylor, Kalani Purcell, Chevannah Paalvast, Lisa Wallbutton, Jess Bygate, Megan Craig, Penina Davidson and Tessa Boagni.

New Zealand have games coming up against Korea (Wednesday), Chinese Taipei A (Thursday) and a USA Select (Friday).

FIBA