POSTED BY: Eurobasket Center
The Oceania All Stars Men's basketball team opened their tournament play at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival against the Australian Men's team. Australia ran out comfortable winners 104 - 62. The Oceania boys started the match very nervously and allowed the Aussies to open up a big lead at quarter time 31 - 12.
A much more composed performance in the second quarter meant that Oceania was able to stop the onslaught and actually win the second quarter to go into the long break down 53 - 35. The two Guam boys were instrumental in leading the fight back with Martin Mendoza having 14 points at the break from 4/5 shooting from the field and 5/6 free throws and Seve Susuico providing the inside force with 11 points from 5/8 shooting from the field including a 3 pointer. Australia was led by swing man Scott Pendlebury who had 16 at the half and Marko Deric who scored 9 points. The Australians had a huge height advantage over the boys from the Pacific and dominated the boards especially offensively. In the third quarter they continued to assert their superiority on the glass and won the quarter 22 - 4 with Pendlebury continuing to dominate amassing 26 points at three quarter time. Oceania composed themselves during the fourth quarter and only lost the quarter by six points. Stephane Saminadin from New Caledonia scored thirteen points in the quarter and made three from three three-pointers. The Oceania All Stars did not help themselves by shooting less than fifty percent of their thirty-two free throws and only five of fifteen free pointers. Forty-five turnovers to Australia's twenty-five also hurt their cause. At the end of the game coach Angelo Francois-Elocie praised the Aussie's on their performance and expects them to make the final and be the team to beat for the gold medal. He highlighted the fact that his players had a hard time adjusting to the overall height and depth of the Australian players. However, he feels that under the circumstances of it being the boys' initial experience at playing at this level that he was fairly happy with the effort. Angelo believes that the team will be much better for the experience and thinks that the games against New Zealand and China are winnable.
