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Newley shines in Boomers loss to European Champs
The Australia Post Boomers lost a well fought contest to Greece 68-60 in the opening match of the Boris Stankovic Cup at the Olympic Sports Centre in Nanjing, China.
Brad Newley top scored for Australia with 21 points and C.J. Bruton added 13, but 24 turnovers from the Boomers was the decisive stat and the number proved too great to overcome.
“There are a lot of things that we can work on, but going down by only 8 points to the European Champions is certainly very encouraging,” said assistant coach Rob Beveridge.
“We were extremely happy with the bench players who brought a lot of energy and were able to be competitive right away.”
Boomers star Andrew Bogut played most of his minutes with Greek players draped all over him and he finished with 9 points and 9 rebounds.
“Andrew was double-teamed a lot,” said Beveridge. “They have two quality big men that could play in the NBA if they wanted to and they handled him well.”
“Obviously we have to work on getting him more touches, but 9 points and 9 rebounds in 27 minutes was a good effort.”
The referees were hard on their whistles in a low scoring opening quarter, calling 13 fouls – 10 against Australia – and restricting the flow of the game. At the first break Australia trailed 15-10.
“They were European refs and it was always going to be difficult for us playing a European team, but they will be officiating at the World Championships so that is something we are just going to have to adjust to,” said Beveridge.
A vocal crowd of over 9000 people witnessed an entertaining second quarter but the Boomer’s went into the main break trailing 35-28.
A hot hand from C. J. Bruton late in the third quarter brought the Australia Post Boomers within striking distance and after a 15-7 run they were down only 5 points early in the fourth. Poor ball control then let Greece off the hook.
“Twenty four turnovers is something that we will have to address and they were costly in that they came at crucial times,” said Beveridge.
Australia will play their second game of the Boris Stankovic Cup against France on Sunday night.
In related news, New Zealand thumped Qatar 94-77 in the first match of its 2-match series in Dunedin. The result bodes well for the Australia Post Boomers who will face Qatar in the World Championship pool matches on August 24.
Australia 60 – Brad Newley 21, C. J. Bruton 13, Andrew Bogut 9.
Greece 68 –
Nice showing by Newley.
Cheers.