MACAO, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The Ambassadors, a team formed by players of the NBA Development League, secured its second victory at the Stankovic Continental Cup here on Tuesday by beating Venezuela by 89-80.

The D-League team led the scoreboards in the first two periods of the match 25-20, 31-21 but lost the last two 20-22, 13-17.

Terrance Thomas scored 23 points, Eugene "Pooh" Jeter had 17 and Renaldo Major added 16, helping to put the Ambassadors back in the title race with two more games left at the six-team tournament.

In its first two encounters at the tournament in Guangzhou city of the Chinese mainland, the U.S. team beat New Zealand 87-84 and lost to Slovenia 86-94.

The Venezuela national team blamed the loss on the referees' poor judgments made at "the key moment" in the fourth period when the score gap was only five points.

"We would not lose the match if it was not for them (the referees)," said Gabriel Alejandro Ruda, coach of the Venezuela team.