AUS/NZL - Worthington, Mills spark Boomers as London beckons

MELBOURNE (FIBA Oceania Championship) - A blistering third quarter from Mark Worthington, Patty Mills and the Australia Boomers has carried the host nation to a 91-78 victory over the New Zealand Tall Blacks in the opening game of the FIBA Oceania Championship in Melbourne.

With a place at the London Olympics on the line, Worthington had struggled in the first half with just three points, but he exploded in the third term with eight points, three rebounds and an enormous triple in transition to delight the capacity crowd and end New Zealand’s resistance.
 
Mills also joined the party with eight points of his own, including two long range bombs as the Boomers extended a two-point half time lead to 15 after three quarters, forcing six New Zealand turnovers for the period and burning the Tall Blacks in transition.

Worthington finished with 15 points, Mills added 20 after a poor first half and Aleks Maric contributed 11 points and 8 rebounds.

For New Zealand, Kirk Penney was quite superb with 30 points on 4/8 three point shooting, and Mika Vukona was his usual relentless self with 18 points, 12 rebounds and 3 assists.
 
Mills, who burst onto the international scene as a scorer at the Beijing Olympics, said he is now a more mature floor leader.

“I’ve learned a lot in terms of how to run a team,” he said. “Just understanding the game from a different perspective.
 
“I’ve had a lot of conversations with coach (Brown) about that, about me being a stronger leader.

"Matt Nielsen is doing a great job of captaining the team, but I have a better understanding of what is needed from a point guard and I’m giving that to my team.”
 
The first half was played at an outstanding level, with both teams shooting with precision, sharing the ball and limiting turnovers.

Australia started the better, bringing the sell-out crowd to life early on with Nielsen and Maric establishing an inside presence.

But the ever-dangerous Penney responded strongly, hitting two straight three-pointers to keep New Zealand within eight points and the first break.

Penney stayed hot in the second quarter and found a willing ally in Vukona, as the pair piled on 16 points for the term to bring the Tall Blacks within 45-47 at half time.
 
New Zealand then took a 53-52 lead after the long break, but Australia responded.

Maric re-establishing himself inside and Worthington nailed his big transition triple to bring the score to 67-56 and the crowd to fever pitch.

When Joe Ingles found Mills for another transition three-pointer the margin was 14 points and Australia was on their way to victory.

The final quarter saw a number of spirited clashes between the fierce rivals, and some spectacular highlights at both ends from Brad Newley as the margin blew out to 20 and home crowd enjoyed the unexpectedly comfortable victory.

Game 2 of the FIBA Oceania Championship is on Friday night in Brisbane.
 
Post-game Quotes
 
Brett Brown (Australia head coach): Both those guys (Penney and Vukona) had outstanding first halves, and Casey (Frank) hit some threes, we just wanted to tighten up the defence, (giving up) 28 points in the second quarter wasn’t good enough, and we were trying to identify the areas where we gave up those points - that was our half time.
 
That’s what we try to do, pace after stops. We have someone like Patty who’s as fast as anyone in the world… They (New Zealand) are dangerous because they are so committed to getting afteroffensive rebounds, so I think that is the key to us getting out and running, finishing the plays with a board
 
Nenad Vucinic (New Zealand head coach): I thought in the first half we didn’t have the necessary intensity defensively, we just didn’t get any stops; offensively we were good. But the game was lost in the first five minutes of the third quarter, when we made stop after stop but we failed to execute offensively, made some careless turnovers. When you give Australia a 15-point lead at home it is very difficult to come back.

Paulo Kennedy

FIBA