Boomers wrap up Asian qualifiers with win over Chinese Taipei

With Emmett Naar running the show again, Jaylin Galloway catching fire and captain Nick Kay's triple-double, the Australian Boomers beat Chinese Taipei 90-71 in Okinawa on Monday.

It was the third and final game of this group stage of the FIBA World Cup Asia Qualifiers for the Boomers in Okinawa, Japan and following a 98-61 win on Friday over Chinese Taipei and then Sunday's 80-64 victory over Japan, they were looking to end on a high.

Clearly after the opening two games despite the limited preparation, Boomers coach Rob Beveridge and his staff Mike Kelly and Robbie McKinlay had done a tremendous job getting this group ready to fire.

They didn’t have it all their own way on Monday against a Chinese Taipei team they beat by 37 points back on Friday, but they began to pull away with the opening 10 points of the second quarter.

Then when Sydney Kings young gun Jaylin Galloway knocked down three three-pointers either side of three quarter-time, the Boomers had done enough to sew up the 19-point win and finish this three-game stage undefeated.

There was plenty of impressive performers for the Boomers including Galloway who put up 13 points largely made up of those three triples.

Emmett Naar ran the point tremendously once more with the Illawarra Hawks point guard finishing with six points, nine assists and five rebounds.

Captain Nick Kay delivered 14 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists in a stunning triple-double performance to show the way for his country with Angus Brandt putting up another 13 points and five boards.

Kyle Zunic finished with nine points and four rebounds, Rhys Vague nine points and five boards, Craig Moller eight points, seven rebounds and five assists, Sean MacDonald six points, David Okwera six points and three rebounds, and Alex Mudronja five points and three assists.

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Angus Brandt opened the scoring for the Boomers and he had four quick points and Nick Kay helped him give Australia the early 6-2 edge. The Boomers threatened to pull away late in the opening term with an alley-oop finish from Kay on the on-point pass from Alex Mudronja.

Sean MacDonald and Rhys Vague then knocked down three-pointers, and Vague slammed one home on the perfect bounce pass from Brandt. But still the Boomers couldn’t shake Chinese Taipei and just led 29-25 after one.

The Boomers did break the game wide open to start the second quarter, though, coming out and hitting the opening 10 points including a three ball from Kyle Zunic to suddenly lead by 14.

Chinese Taipei wasn’t about to roll over, though, and by half-time had kept themselves within touch and the Boomers only led 56-46.

Gradually Australia was able to stretch the lead throughout the third period and some big buckets from Jaylin Galloway including a three-pointer helped the Boomers to lead 73-56 by the end of three.

Galloway then kept that momentum going hitting two more triples to start the fourth quarter. David Okwera and Zunic also connected from deep to close out the game before Brandt threw down a slam and Australia took out the 19-point win to go through this stage of three matches undefeated.