Blanchfield Shoots Boomers to Win Over Bahrain

Todd Blanchfield might have had an NBL23 to forget with the Perth Wildcats but he sent a reminder of what he's still capable of to help spark the Australian Boomers to an 83-51 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers victory over Bahrain.

The Boomers didn’t have it all their own way at Melbourne's State Basketball Centre on Thursday night with Bahrain starting strongly to lead 14-8 early before Australia took over to close the opening period and then throughout the second.

The Boomers finished the first quarter with a 17-5 run before scoring the first 16 points of the second term with 13 of those courtesy of Blanchfield.

That helped Australia to lead 52-24 by half-time and despite a rough third quarter with just seven points on 1/17 shooting from the field, the Boomers still prevailed 83-51 to remain unbeaten in World Cup qualifying games that they have hit the court in.

The only loss on the record came against Iran with the team not travelling to play on government advance late last year with the Boomers now having just one game to go before the World Cup starts in August with the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan the hosts.

In the last eight games of the season for the Wildcats, Blanchfield played a total of 43 minutes for 11 points and 3/10 shooting, and 1/5 from downtown. It was the toughest season of his 373-game NBL career, but he shook that off with a spectacular shooting display on Thursday.

He scored 13 consecutive points including three triples to open the second quarter for the Boomers and ended the game with 20 points, five rebounds and four assists on 7/11 shooting including 4/7 from beyond the arc.

Isaac Humphries was also a strong inside presence for Australia for 18 points, six rebounds and two assists on 8/10 shooting with captain Nick Kay contributing 13 points, five rebounds and two assists, and Rhys Vague 13 points and five boards.

Nathan Sobey also had eight points, four rebounds and four assists, and Kyle Adnam five points and five assists.

Devon Chism top-scored for Bahrain with 15 points and 11 rebounds with Ahmed Haji contributing 14 points and seven boards.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Isaac Humphries gets the Boomers started at home with a hammer ?<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FIBAWC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FIBAWC</a> x <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WinForAustralia?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WinForAustralia</a> ?? <a href="https://t.co/w7pcR1I1AJ">pic.twitter.com/w7pcR1I1AJ</a></p>&mdash; FIBA Basketball World Cup (@FIBAWC) <a href="https://twitter.com/FIBAWC/status/1628669192181350400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 23, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Bahrain might have been out of the running for a World Cup spot, but that didn’t stop them arriving in Melbourne to throw everything at the Boomers. It worked early as they led 6-2 and then 9-4 when Subah Azzam knocked down a three-pointer.

Isaac Humphries had scored Australia's first four points but it was only after Devon Chism had helped Bahrain to a 14-8 lead that the home team found some momentum.

Three-point knockdowns to Rhys Vague and Kyle Adnam put Australia in front for the first time with two and-a-half minutes left in the opening period.

Humphries then scored two more buckets and Vague closed the opening period with the last five points to help the Boomers to a 25-19 advantage after the slow start on the back of scoring 17 of the last 22 points.

The Boomers made the decisive run of the game in the second quarter and it pretty much lasted the entire 10 minutes.

Australia opened up scoring the opening 16 points of the quarter beginning with triples from Vague and Todd Blanchfield. It was Blanchfield who ended up scoring the last 13 points of that run himself in a simply spectacular patch.

It was reminiscent of what he did earlier in the NBL season in Cairns to celebrate his 350th appearance but the longer NBL23 went, the less and less court time he saw with the Perth Wildcats.

He took out that frustration on Bahrain with those 13 consecutive second quarter points which included three makes from beyond the arc and all of a sudden the Boomers were leading 41-19.

It was captain Kay who then scored the last seven points of the half to give Australia the 52-24 advantage thanks to the 27 points to just five from Bahrain in a remarkably dominant second quarter.

As good as the second quarter was for the Boomers, things really dried up in the third period and Australia made just the one field goal the entire 10 minutes. That was courtesy of Humphries and the team shot 1/17 for the quarter with the other five points all coming at the foul line.

Bahrain kept on fighting too and Ahmed Haji scored nine of their 19 points to cut the Australian lead to 59-43 by three quarter-time.

Mitch McCarron opened up the fourth quarter with a three-pointer before Nathan Sobey converted a three-point play to put Australia's lead back out beyond 20 points.

As the fourth quarter unfolded, the Boomers went on another 9-0 streak on the back of three-point bombs from Blanchfield, Humphries and Sobey, and eventually claimed the 83-51 win to remain unbeaten in World Cup qualifying games they've taken the floor in.

The last FIBA World Cup qualifying match for the Boomers will now be against Kazakhstan again at Melbourne's State Basketball Centre on Sunday afternoon.

FIBA WORLD CUP ASIAN QUALIFIER – SECOND ROUND, GROUP F

AUSTRALIAN BOOMERS 83 (Blanchfield 20, Humphries 18, Kay 13, Vague 13)

BAHRAIN 51 (Chism 15, Haji 14, Azzam 7) 

BOX SCORE