- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Boomers coach Brian Goorjian praised his young guns and believed Australia was improving despite being exposed in some areas in their 75-60 victory over New Zealand in Auckland tonight.
Goorjian called a timeout inside the first two minutes after Australia trailed 2-0, but the visitors quickly grabbed the initiative.
Sparked by eight straight points from veteran centre Chris Anstey, who finished with 13, and some suffocating defence, Australia bolted to a 26-9 quartertime lead.
Although New Zealand outscored Australia from there, the Boomers never looked like losing the game.
New Zealand enjoyed some success when they switched to a zone defence and cut the deficit to eight early in the final quarter.
Young Boomers point guard Patrick Mills effectively settled the issue with three three-pointers.
Mills (14 points), forward Shawn Redhage (13) and Joe Ingles (9) helped Australia to a massive 42-16 advantage in bench scoring.
Goorjian, who hopes to settle on his final Olympic squad of 12 plus alternates following Saturday’s return match against the Tall Blacks in Melbourne, felt tonight’s performance represented an improvement on the series sweep of Iran last week.
“It was good to win a game on the road, it was a step forward from the Iran games,” Goorjian told AAP from Auckland.
“We got tested in the half-court more than we did in the Iran series and we did a better job tonight in that area.
“Again we got exposed in a few areas. We haven’t done much against the zone and they zoned us a lot and got back into the game, so that’s an area we need to address and get better at.
“But all in all, it was a good team performance. We played real hard again at the defensive end of the floor and our trapping defence did work for us.”
Goorjian said while there had been a lot of talk about New Zealand’s youth, he felt his own crop of youngsters brought a lot of energy to the game.
“We’ve got a lot of young players that are exciting, we got great contributions from those guys consistently during the game and I felt very comfortable going to the bench during the game.”
Both Goorjian and starting point guard CJ Bruton praised Mills for his contribution.
Point guard Lindsay Tait hit a game-high 16 for New Zealand, but was the Tall Blacks’ only double-digit scorer.
Australia shot 46 per cent from the field to New Zealand’s 39 per cent.
New Zealand coach Nenad Vucinic said he was very happy with his team’s commitment.
“I’m very happy that the boys haven’t really collapsed and stuck with it,” he said.
“To play against a defence like the one Australia had on it’s very difficult to actually get into the offence let alone get something out of it.”
Build your own ultimate team! Pick your key players and take a shot at big cash prizes every day with Draftstars. For great odds on NBA games every day head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.