MIES (Switzerland) - Australia and New Zealand have long dominated Oceanian basketball, with the Australian Boomers doing much of the winning on the continent. As one of FIBA's 90 iconic moments, the first FIBA Oceania Championship took place in 1971 - with just the two superpowers facing off in three games.

The 1971 inaugural event took place in New Zealand and served as the qualifier for the FIBA Olympic Men's Basketball Tournament 1972. Australia eased to a 91-56 win in the first game on August 7 in Auckland and then knocked off the Tall Blacks 107-58 in the second game in Rotuna. The final contest on August 14 also went to Australia, 117-72 in Christchurch for a 3-0 series sweep.

The competition took place every two years to determine Oceania's representative in either the FIBA Basketball World Cup or the Olympics.

In only five of the 22 editions did a team other than Australia or New Zealand also participate - Tahiti in 1987, Samoa in 1993, American Samoa in 1995, New Caledonia in 1997 and Guam in 1999.

When it was just Australia and New Zealand, the tournament was usually a best-of-three playoff. When other teams were included, a round-robin plus knockout stage was employed.

In 2009, the format changed to a two-game, home-and-away playoff between the two countries with an aggregate score as the decider in the case of a split.

Australian Boomer Joe Ingles playing in the 2009 edition 

In the 47 games between Australia and New Zealand, the Boomers collected 43 victories - twice finishing second as the Tall Blacks won two of three games in 2001 and New Zealand's 100-78 second leg win outdoing Australia’s first victory 84-77 in 2009. New Zealand's series win in 2001 meant Australia missed the 2002 FIBA Basketball World Cup - the only time between 1970 and 2019 that the Boomers did not play in FIBA's showpiece event.

New Zealand defeated Guam in 1999 in a one-game playoff as Australia did not compete since they were hosts of the 2000 Olympics.

FIBA