AUS – Australia lower the boom in opener against Argentina
PERTH (2010 FIBA World Championship) – Australia coach Brett Brown wanted to see a solid defensive effort from the Boomers on Friday against Argentina and his players delivered in a 97-58 demolition of the South Americans. In the opening game of the Boomers World Challenge, the Aussies held Argentina to 31% shooting from the floor. The hosts ...
PERTH (2010 FIBA World Championship) – Australia coach Brett Brown wanted to see a solid defensive effort from the Boomers on Friday against Argentina and his players delivered in a 97-58 demolition of the South Americans.
In the opening game of the Boomers World Challenge, the Aussies held Argentina to 31% shooting from the floor.
The hosts also came up with 11 steals and blocked five shots.
With both teams missing leading players, one who did show up for Australia - star guard Pat Mills - got his team off on the right foot by scoring the game’s first five points and they never turned back.
By the end of the first quarter, Brown’s team had a 22-11 lead and at half-time, the advantage was 51-26.
They cruised in the second half to a decisive win.
Brown was happy with his team's display, especially as it was their first real step in preparation for this summer's FIBA World Championship.
"You always learn something and because we are at such early stages of moving forward to Turkey, there really isn't a lot in our structures right now both on offence and defence," he said.
"Defensively there were some missed assignments that you can pick different things on and show the team on video... at this early stage it's just fantastic to get the group together and to play basketball games together."
The Australians thoroughly dominated in every aspect, out-rebounding Argentina 47-27 while also scoring 44 points in the paint to just 24 for Argentina.
Another important member of the national team, Brad Newley, led the Australia scoring parade with 15 points while Mills contributed 13 and Alex Loughton 11.
Joe Ingles had a team-high three steals for the winners.
Nicolas Romano poured in a game-high 18 for Argentina.
The two sides will meet in two more friendly games in the Boomers World Challenge.
They also will face each other in Group A at the FIBA World Championship later this summer but those teams will have a lot of different and far more experienced players in them.
FIBA