The Emus have so far played matches against Croatia, Spain and Canada and coach Adam Caporn is pleased with the team’s progress.

“As a team of 12, we have not been together very long so we’re still building the culture,” he explained. “It has been great experience and it is helping us adjust to different styles of basketball, but we’re still figuring out our own team too.”

In their opening game, the Emus were 101-90 victors over Croatia after blasting the opposition away with a 38-18 first term.

Dejan Vasiljevic (28 points) led five players in double-figure scoring while William McDowell-White (15 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists) was exceptional with a triple-double.

“Our guard play has been very strong and our forwards are rapidly improving,” said Caporn. “We’ve been really good at making plays for each other and being unselfish at the offensive end.”

Tied at half-time in their clash with Spain, the Emus fell away in the second half, defeated 64-79 despite Thomas Wilson, Jack White and Jack McVeigh all reaching double figures. Caporn knew exactly where his side lost the game.

“Turnovers,” he said.

“It was a really intense match in front of a Spanish crowd which is great experience. We played really hard but we need to tighten up our strategy and unity a little bit.”

The Emus quickly bounced back with a 78-69 win against Canada with Vasiljevic (15 points) and Tanner Krebs (12) starring.

Speaking ahead of the Croatian tour, Caporn said he would utilise the games as a chance to solidify his group.

“The previous games were focused on finding things out about ourselves and we will now start to define the roles in our team,” he explained. “We will also use the game experience together to further build our team but we need to do all that while staying fresh so that we are at our best in Greece [for the World Championships].”