Bannan has double-double in Boomer's debut

Josh Bannan and Rocco Zikarsky played their first minutes representing Australia at the senior level as the Boomers took on South Korea in Bendigo

The Boomers survived a scare in their opening game of FIBA Asia Cup qualifying by erupting in the fourth quarter to register a come from behind 85-71 win against South Korea.

Australia trailed by two points at three quarter time but scored 32 points in the final term to emerge as 14-point victors. South Korea was in the lead for almost 30 minutes of the clash, but the Boomers’ slaloming final quarter meant the reigning Asia Cup champions were prevented from a surprise defeat.

The Boomers trailed by as many as six points with just six minutes to go, but triples from Josh Bannan and DJ Vasiljevic pulled the game back to a tied score and ended the clash with a 30-10 run.

Bannan registered an 11-point, 11-rebound double double on his Boomers debut, while Vasiljevic had a team-high eight assists to complement his 14 points.

Veteran forward and Olympic bronze medallist Nick Kay led the scoring for the Boomers with 21 points.

Ra Gun-ah was an irresistible force in the paint for South Korea and was their only double-digit scorer for the game. He matched Kay’s 21 points and also pulled down 14 rebounds – six of which were offensive.

Australia’s next opponents, Indonesia, suffered a 17-point defeat in their opening qualifier to Thailand.

AUSTRALIA - 85 (Kay 21, Vasiljevic 14, Henshall 14)
SOUTH KOREA - 71 (Ra 21, Lee 9, Byeon 9)

Tyrell Harrison also represented New Zealand in the Tall Blacks first game of the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers against Chinese Taipei.

Similarly to the Boomers, the Tall Blacks used a dominant fourth quarter showing to earn a 89-69 win over Chinese Taipei tonight, in their first game of Window 1 of the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers.

With New Zealand leading by five heading into the final period, Ethan Rusbatch stepped up in big-time fashion; scoring 14 of his 26 points in the quarter on 5/5 shooting – including 4 triples – as part of a back-breaking 16-0 run that saw the Kiwis outscore Chinese Taipei 23-8.

Tyrell made an impact in his 15 minutes finishing with 4 points (2/2) and 7 rebounds in the match.

NEW ZEALAND 89 – (Rusbatch 26, Timmins 16, Vodanovich 16)

CHINESE TAIPEI 69 – (C. Liu 20, Chun Chi Lin 9, Cheng Lin 9)

Next up:

25 Feb 2024 – NZL vs Hong Kong (1.30pm AEST) in Auckland, NZ

25 Feb 2024 – Indonesia vs Australia (10pm AEST) in Jakarta, INA