Basketball: Vukona inspires Tall Blacks to sweet victory

Mika Vukona scored a career-high 25 points for the Tall Blacks against Australia last night. Photo / Getty Images

Mika Vukona led the way as New Zealand swept aside Australia 100-78 in game two of the Oceania basketball championship in Wellington last night.

New Zealand lost the first game 77-84 in Sydney but last night's victory by a record margin over Australia saw them claim the Al Ramsay Shield and the Oceania title for the first time since 2006 on points aggregate, 177-162.

The 22-point winning margin eclipsed their 19-point win over Australia in 2006 at Napier.

Australian coach Brett Brown was surprised by the offensive effectiveness of Vukona.

"We didn't think Mika could shoot in the way he shot and full credit to him," Brown said.

Vukona shot a career-high 25 points, 19 of them after halftime, and collected 12 rebounds.

He got good support from captain Kirk Penney who amassed 24 points. Alex Pledger and Lindsay Tait added 15 and 12 respectively.

Australia were led by 20 points to Brad Newley. Their hero from Sydney, Joseph Ingles, saw his scoring reduced from 26 to just 13.

Fijian-born Vukona, 27, spent the latter part of the match reminding his teammates about their late slump in game one on Sunday.

"With the Australians, you can never give it up to them. We gave it up to them in the last quarter in the last game," Vukona said.

The stunning result is a triumph for coach Nenad Vucinic, who is tired of the negativity surrounding a side he is trying to rebuild.

"No one gave us any credit, no one respected us, everybody was thinking the old generation is gone and we can't win against anybody," Vucinic said.

Vukona, who called for a better effort following the Sydney defeat was at the heart of all that was good for New Zealand tonight.

He was also involved in the game's flashpoint when he and Australian giant Nathan Jawai engaged in a verbal stoush and had to be separated by teammates.

It resulted in the Dallas Mavericks NBA centre Jawai being handed a technical foul.

"I was just talking to him about that flying elbow. But I gave it just as much, which is good," Vukona said.

The biggest difference between the teams was the long-range shooting.

Australia missed their first 14 three-point shots and ultimately landed three from 23 shots while New Zealand ended with seven from 11.

Guard Lindsay Tait opened the scoring with a three pointer in the opening seconds while Michael Fitchett landed one on the run from well outside the arc to cap their dream third quarter.

The Tall Blacks had actually trailed 38-40 after the first half but the game exploded from there as New Zealand went from 42-46 down to 61-48 ahead in a five-minute spell in which everything seemed to go right.

The highlight during that period was a spectacular slam dunk to guard Thomas Abercrombie off a Penney "alley-oop".

Australia threatened to at least claim the series as they closed to within 13 points midway through the final quarter but the Tall Blacks didn't capitulate as they had in Sydney.

Brown was extremely disappointed with the result.

"I thought that we really got caught in the emotion of the game and we did not handle very well when they started making their run," he said.

"I thought a lot of young guys were in a situation that just wasn't handled very well and you give full credit to New Zealand."

- NZPA