TAURANGA (2015 FIBA Oceania Women's Championship) - Much of the talk following Game 1 of the FIBA Oceania Women's Championship centred on Australia's suffocating defense, which held New Zealand to 41 miserly points.

Leading the way was veteran power forward Laura Hodges - once known as a mostly offensive talent - sliding her feet, helping, switching screens and directing her younger teammates constantly.

The 31-year-old revealed her defensive motivation in the post-game press conference, and had plenty of praise for her fellow Opals approach to the Rio Olympics qualifiers.

"We have to be defenders or else we're probably not going to be part of an Opals side," she said of coach Brendan Joyce's mantra.

"We know we have to play defense to get the goal, to one day win a gold medal, and it's really nice to be able to play with 12 girls you always know are going to come out and play hard defensively."

Things didn't go all the Aussies' way in Melbourne, however, with the Tall Ferns' offense creating plenty of good looks early in the game.

"We got caught playing too tight on the ball which allowed them to penetrate," Joyce said.

"They've got some good pieces of action that we were across, but you can talk about how you're going to defend it but sometimes you’re going to have breakdowns.

"The most consistent breakdowns we had were in the first five minutes, but after that there weren’t many."

Australia are just another defensive lockdown away from locking in a place in Rio, and Joyce said there is no danger of his side losing focus with such a big margin.

"We'll focus on how we're going to win, and that's defense and rebounding," he said.

"I thought our offensive execution was pretty good, the girls have just got to relax and knock down the shots."

An easy lay-up is better than running the ball for 24 seconds. - Hodges

For Hodges, the key is turning their defensive efforts into points at the other end, especially with the Tall Ferns' halfcourt defense also proving a tough nut to crack.

You need to get stops but we need to keep running the ball and get easy baskets," she said. 

Game 2 takes place on Monday in Tauranga at 19:30 local time (GMT+12) and can be seen live on LiveBasketball.TV (registration and subscription required; game geo-blocked in Australia and New Zealand).

FIBA