Australia defeated Slovenia 77-63 in their second game of the Stankovic Cup last night. Patrick Mills and Adam Gibson led the Australians in scoring with 15 points apiece. Brad Newley added 14 and Joe Ingles 12.
For Slovenia Sani Becirovic led the way with 15 points, Jaka Klobucar added 13 and Uros Slokar had 10. The Slovenian team featured two of their NBA stars in Goran Dragic and Primoz Brezec, whilst Sasha the Machine and Beno Udrih were unavailable.
Boomers’ head coach Brett Brown was happy with his team’s defence against Slovenia.
“We played a very good team and I was happy with the way we guarded them as a group,” Brown said. “They have an excellent scoring team, and some dynamic perimeter shooters including NBA guard Goran Dragic and an NBA centre in Primoz Brezec. To hold Slovenia to 64 points for the game and 12 in the last quarter was a terrific effort. This area must not waiver.”
“Slowly there is a comfort level with each other emerging and a recognition of our system. There’s just nothing like playing games to expedite both improvement and recognition of weaknesses.”
Brown was particularly happy with the effort of Gold Coast Blaze guard Gibson.
“Adam had a great game. He made shots at end of shot clocks that were absolute backbreakers, and some big shots from behind the three-point line,” Brown said. “When you couple that with his normal tough defence, that’s a great package.”
Check out the reinvigorated Basketball Australia site for more details on the game and the Boomers in general. BA have done a good job in increasing their online presence this year, subsequent to the restructure. The information is presented in a much more appealing way, with twitter and facebook offerings as well, to keep Aussie basketball fans informed and involved.
For full video of the Slovenia match visit http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8582540
The Boomers take on Iran today and live video of the match can be seen through this link.
