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Boomers forward David Barlow has put one foot on the plane to Beijing with a sparkling performance as Australia cruised past fellow basketball Olympic qualifiers Iran 87-68 in Perth tonight.
Barlow hit his first four three-pointers on the way to a 19-point haul in just 27 minutes of court time but it wasn’t all one-way traffic for the Australians, who at times struggled to contain an opponent ranked 24 places behind them on the world standings.
CJ Bruton, already a shoo-in for the Games, showed his class on both ends of the court, finishing with 13 points on three-of-four shooting from long range.
His understudy Patrick Mills contributed 11 points in a promising performance.
Naturalised Australian Shawn Redhage was another to do his chances of Beijing selection no harm with 13 points, including three-of-three from downtown.
The Boomers, minus NBA star Andrew Bogut, European-based power forward David Andersen, Nathan Jawai, Russell Hinder, Luke Kendall, Darnell Mee, Wade Helliwell and Glen Saville were clearly on top from start to finish but were far from polished against the reigning Asian Champions.
With national coach Brian Goorjian heavily rotating his bench Australia struggled to find its rhythm, although Iran’s dysfunctional defence resulted in plenty of easy baskets.
Barlow’s early onslaught saw Australia take a 33-22 lead into quarter time but the Boomers managed just 14 points in the second term with Barlow rested for the stanza.
Iran cut the deficit to eight points early in the third quarter but three long-range bombs from Bruton within the space of five minutes and more magic from Barlow in the final term snuffed out the visitors’ hopes.
Iran relied on 217cm centre Hamed Ehadadi (23 points) and captain Samad Nikkhah (20 points) for the bulk of their scoring.
The series moves to Adelaide on Wednesday and concludes in Melbourne on Friday.
Boomers coach Brian Goorjian praised Barlow’s efforts after the match.
“He’s a key for us,” Goorjian said.
“He’s playing very well and I’m excited about him as a player.
“To say he’s in (the Beijing team) right now is premature but he certainly didn’t do himself any harm and he hasn’t done himself any harm since he’s joined the camp.”
Goorjian said he was pleased with the team’s performance against Iran.
“There were a lot of real good signs there,” he said.
“I thought the guys enjoyed each other on the floor and they played real hard.”
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