AUS/NZL - Ingles carries Australia home

SYDNEY (FIBA Oceania Championship) - Beijing Olympian Joe Ingles has almost single-handedly carried Australia to an 84-77 victory over New Zealand in game one of the FIBA Oceania Championship in Sydney.

After New Zealand took a 66-63 lead to start the final quarter, Ingles peeled off 10 straight points as his Boomers made a 14-2 run to take control of the contest. Ingles finished the game with 26 points on 9/14 shooting in a marquee performance.

Australia was also helped by an ice-cold shooting performance from New Zealand star Kirk Penney. After nailing his first three field goals - all three pointers - Penney could manage just 5/16 for the remainder of the game. He finished with 23 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists.

Matthew Dellavedova, Australia's captain at the FIBA U19 World Championship, made a promising debut on the defensive end, playing an important denial role on Penney in the final quarter.

Ingles started the game with a hot hand, scoring 8 points to give Australia a 10-4 lead. But Alex Pledger and Penney stepped up to keep New Zealand within 21-25 at quarter time.

The 216cm Alex Pledger dominated rookie Australian centre AJ Ogilvy, who had a debut start he would prefer to forget. Pledger collected 16 points on 6/8 shooting and 6 rebounds.

His work, along with Mika Vukona (7 points, 10 rebounds) and debutant BJ Anthony (6 points, 7 rebounds) allowed the Tall Blacks to control the boards, 45-31, and stretch the Boomers' defence.

After Australia had taken a 42-32 advantage late in the first half, Pledger and Anthony converted on pick-and-pops, and FIBA U19 World Championship star Rob Loe nailed a long triple to keep New Zealand within striking distance, 42-43, at the long break.

The Tall Blacks picked up where they left off in the second half, and when Penney and Tait scored back to back fast break baskets the Kiwis led 57-52. Seven points from forward Oscar Forman kept the Boomers in touch before a buzzer beater from Mike Fitchett gave New Zealand a three point lead at the last break.

From there Ingles and fellow Olympian Brad Newley (13 points, 5 rebounds) assured an Australian victory. Dallas Maverick Nathan Jawai (17 points, 11 rebounds) played a lone hand in the keyway for Australia.

The final game of the two game series is Tuesday night in Wellington, the New Zealand capital.


They said:

Brett Brown, Australia coach:

“We were down going into the last period and Joey, through some individual brilliance, bailed us out of some potential problems.

"We have a team that is physically gifted so I was surprised that they got the better of us on the boards, particularly the offensive boards, but you’ve got to give New Zealand credit, they were an aggressive, tenacious team."

Alex Pledger, New Zealand centre:

“People will probably say that we put up a good fight and battled hard. But we lost, which is probably what they expected us to do . . . we can’t be satisfied with that. We were leading going into the fourth quarter and we didn’t close it out well. We can’t be happy with that.

“We feel like we kind of gave it away. We gave Joe Ingles some wide open looks in transition early in the fourth quarter. You can’t do that against a guy like that. A couple of open looks go in, then makes the tough ones seem easy."

Paulo Kennedy
FIBA