Prathet Thai vs. Australia 97 - 128 (21077)In a fairly predictable first Asia Championship match the Australian national team easily accounted for Thailand in front of the Taiwanese crowd. The match saw the debut of Spencer Moylan
(13434753) and the return of old heads Wazza Kennerley
(6863683) and Kye Duffill
(10080211). Thailand's early lead in the first quarter 5-3 was short lived as Australia broke away with an 8-0 run which got them the lead and they never looked back. At one stage in the match Thailand crawled back within 4 points (56-60). Knowing that a kick up the back side was required, the coach made a timely 30 second timeout which allowed the Australians to regroup and to dominate the rest of the match (41-68). There were notable contributions from Australia, both Moylan and Jone Bogan
(13436463) had 20 points and 5 assists, Gary Lawrance
(12019302) had a double double, Sun Cunming
(9471882) had 5 big blocks, while player of the match Wazza had 20 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists and also did an exceptional defensive job on Arnon Punpak
(7695851) who struggled to shoot accurately all night. All in all it was a solid first outing from Australia, they will have a break in between before their second Asia Championship match against Vietnam.