Basketball: Tall Blacks historic first win in Australia

Tall Blacks captain Pero Cameron holds the trans-tasman trophy aloft. Kristian Dowling / Getty Images

MELBOURNE - Rookie centre Craig Bradshaw played the game of his life as the Tall Blacks made history with their first basketball victory over Australia on Australian soil, 79-71, last night.

Before a screaming Vodafone Arena crowd of 8900, Bradshaw topscored with 25 points, muscled up against the Boomers' big men and nailed a crucial three-pointer to make it 75-71 with one minute 50 seconds remaining.

The New Zealanders then ran the clock down as the Boomers' shooting touch deserted them in the final quarter.

The win was just New Zealand's sixth in 54 matches against Australia and levelled the four-match trans-Tasman series 2-2 in a much-needed confidence booster a month out from the world championship in Japan.

Just two days after losing by one point in Hobart, it also went some way to avenging new Zealand's heartbreaking loss in the Commonwealth Games gold medal match at the same venue four months ago.

Bradshaw, 22 and based at Winthrop University in North Carolina, stepped up in style to meet the huge task of filling the retired Sean Marks' boots.

He led all scorers, added nine rebounds and had solid backup from sharpshooters Kirk Penney, with 21 points, and Phill Jones with 14.

Andrew Bogut topscored for the Boomers with 18 and also added eight rebounds.

The game followed the pattern of the previous three, Penney and Jones -- showing no ill-effects from his ankle sprain on Monday -- nailing early three-pointers as the Tall Blacks flew out of the blocks and the home side looked a touch flat.

Again, the teams' statistics mirrored each other as the lead seesawed and neither side could break clear in the first half as New Zealand took time to adjust to being without point guard Mark Dickel, who was ruled out of the match because of a knee injury.

With Bogut a big presence under the hoop, the Boomers warmed up to lead 20-18 after the first quarter.

The Tall Blacks struggled to get shots to drop, then started to take it to Australia's big men as Penney twice darted through a sea of defenders to score, putting them back in front by one, just before halftime.

Bradshaw then started to impose himself after the break, drawing fouls and showing his class on offence against the taller Australians as the Tall Blacks stepped it up a gear and made their key shots.

A sweet Ben Hill three-pointer struck a crucial blow for the visitors to go into the final quarter with a 61-54 lead, at that stage their biggest of the match.

Coach Tab Baldwin, so acidic in his criticism of his players in Hobart, was a picture of pure delight after the match.

"This is a huge win for us," Baldwin said. "We wanted this game so much. There were a couple of times it could have slipped away but we didn't let it."

- NZPA