The Australian men kicked off their series with an 81-65 win over Argentina.
Without losing a quarter, the men proved a class above their opposition with Kody Stattman lighting them up from distance on 7-9 three-point shooting for 21 points.
He was joined in double-figure scoring by Samson Froling (12 points, seven rebounds), Patrick Bines (11 points, five rebounds) and Sean MacDonald (11 points, five boards).
The following day against Canada, a team they will face in the group stages of the World Champs, Australia stumbled to lose 53-88 in a pressure-filled contest.
Canada flew out of the gates to lead 24-15 and did not let up for the entire game with only Stattman (10 points) and Bines (nine points) able to penetrate the defence.
Australia bounced back from that performance against France with a strong outing, falling 68-71 as their opposition nailed a three-pointer in the dying seconds to clinch the game.
Positively, the Aussie demonstrated the lessons they had learned from the Canada clash and will head into the group stage of the World Champs with confidence.
Meanwhile, the Australian women have won their series 2-1, against the Czech Republic in their final warm-up games.
It was a tight battle in the first half of Game 1, with the Sapphires only leading by four points before they pulled away in a strong 25-15 third term.
The Czech’s were able to respond in the fourth period, cutting the margin to five but the damage had been done as Australia ran out 71-62 victors.
Meeting again the following day, the Czech Republic were keen to atone for their loss and jumped out of the blocks with a 21-8 opening term.
The Sapphires slowly pulled themselves back into the contest, trimming the deficit to three points at the final change but they tired down the stretch to fall 62-70.
The most complete performance for the series came for Australia in Game 3 as they won every quarter to cruise to a 67-48 victory.
Across the three contests, Jazmin Shelley was efficient with 12.3 points on 11-28 shooting including 6-12 from three-point range.
Ezi Magbegor was also consistent, averaging ten points and 7.3 rebounds with 1.3 blocks per game while Rebecca Pizzey (13 points in Game 1), Jasmine Simmons (18 points in Game 2) and Abby Cubillo (11 points in Game 3) all proved they can handle themselves at the offensive end.
In further news for the Sapphires, Simmons has been named captain for the World Championships with Magbegor named vice-captain.
All the information for the women’s tournament can be found here on the FIBA website. Their World Championship campaign begins tomorrow night against Mexico at 9.45pm AEST.
The men’s tournament will tip-off against Canada at 8pm Thursday night AEST with all the information for their campaign found here.
