Aussies clean sweep Asia Cup qualifiers

Australia will go into this year’s FIBA Asia Cup in Saudi Arabia with a 6-0 record after Sunday’s 114-64 win against Thailand in Traralgon.

NBL guards Elijah Pepper and Isaac White scored 46 points to help ensure the Australian Boomers stayed unbeaten in the qualifying rounds.

It was the second game for this FIBA window at Traralgon's Gippsland Regional Indoor Sports Stadium on the back of Thursday night's 109-58 victory against Indonesia.

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Adelaide 36ers pair Ben Griscti and Nick Marshall played their part in a whole team performance, with Marshall getting his first international start in the green and gold..

Griscti scored five points, grabbed four rebounds and dished two assists, while Marshall added six points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals.

The Boomers team was without Tasmania JackJumpers championship winning big man Fabijan Krslovic on Sunday, while Emmett Adair also found himself ejected in the third quarter after a second unsportsmanlike foul after scoring 15 points against Indonesia.

Australia still proved too powerful for Thailand on the back of starting the game on an 11-3 run with Perth Wildcats guard Pepper scoring six of those points along with former Townsville, Illawarra and Perth teammates Mitch Norton and Nick Kay scoring.

The Boomers ended up going into quarter-time leading 26-18 thanks to another 9-0 run before that advantage was out to 56-35 by half-time.

Pepper and White combined for 23 of those first half points for Australia even while they shot just 2/13 from three-point range as a team.

However, they did go 55 per cent from the field still overall and 10/12 from the foul line along with 22 points off Thailand's 16 turnovers and 38 points in the paint to 10.

Pepper then came out firing to start the second half with six quick points as the lead ballooned to 27 points for the Boomers and it remained at 28 by three quarter-time.

It was an even greater dominance from the Boomers in the fourth quarter as they piled on 33 points to 11 to score the 50-point win on the back of a couple of three balls to White and then a late 9-0 run with all those points scored by Marshall and Luke Fennell.

The win means the Boomers finish the qualifying stages with a perfect 6-0 record ahead of the Asia Cup in Saudi Arabia in August.

While Australia still only ended up going 7/30 from deep, they shot 56 per cent overall while pulling down 53 rebounds to 32 and scoring 34 points from Thailand's 23 turnovers along with 40 fast break points to nine, and a monstrous 80 points in the paint to 16.

Pepper finished the game with 24 points on 11/19 shooting for Australia with five rebounds and five assists with Brisbane Bullets guard White adding 22 points and six assists while hitting three of the seven three-pointers.

Mitch Norton ended up with 13 points, four rebounds and three assists, his long-time close friend Kay 15 points, eight rebounds and four assists, and Perth Wildcats emerging big man David Okwera 11 points, nine boards, five assists and three steals.

South East Melbourne Phoenix development player Luke Fennell provided seven points and three rebounds, Jacob Furphy five points and three boards, and Mitch McCarron two points, five rebounds and four steals.

Freddie Lish top-scored for Thailand with 15 points and four steals with Martin Breunig adding 10 points and seven rebounds, and Emmanuel Ejesu 10 points and eight boards.

2025 FIBA ASIA CUP QUALIFIERS
AUSTRALIAN BOOMERS 114 (Pepper 24, White 22, Kay 15) def THAILAND 64 (Lish 15, Ejesu 10, Breunig 10)
BOX SCORE