A night after they upset their Chinese hosts, 64-63, in their opening game, the Boomers returned to the Liugang Gymnasium in Liuzhou to face the world number 20.
The Australians led for most of the match and comfortably held off every Slovenian challenge to score a 14-point win.
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.
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.
The win was all the more impressive because Boomers big man Matt Nielsen suffered a corked left thigh in the third quarter and did not play for the remainder of the game.
For full video of the match visit http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8582540
For match photos visit http://pic.bscup.tom.com/vw/211265-11.html#picchange
Australian Boomers 77 defeated Slovenia 63
Stankovic Continental Cup – Game 2
Liugang Gymnasium, Liuzhou, China
Quarter-by-Quarter
1st Quarter AUS 16, SLO 17
2nd Quarter AUS 24, SLO 17
3rd Quarter AUS 21, SLO 17
4th Quarter AUS 16, SLO 12
Top scorers
AUS – P. Mills 15, A. Gibson 15, B. Newley 14, J. Ingles 12
SLO – S. Becirovic 15, J. Klobucar 13, U. Slokar 10
