Basketball On The Internet.

AUSTRALIA's latest iteration of its national men's team, our "B for Boomers", last night turned Syria into a sandy wasteland with a 123-64 rout at Manila's Mall of Asia Arena, bolstering their FIBA World Cup qualifying record to 7-0 behind a relentless long-range Elijah Pepper bombardment.

Pepper's game-high 32 points saw him with 8-of-10 threes at one stage, his overall floor percentage a juicy 71 per cent. His passing also was of high quality in a game the NZ NBL MVP should long remember.

Luke Travers (14 points at 86 per cent) introduced himself to the Syrians with an opening drive, Pepper splicing a triple, Nick Kay (8 points, 6 boards) following with a three-point play and Pepper with a second 3-ball for an 11-0 start.

Game over.

Syria gutted it out to only be behind 16-27 at the first break, James Justice Jr leading the way. But once the hustling Aussie defence turned off Triple-J, the boys in the green-and-gold were playing on an entirely different wavelength.

Of course that is to be expected when you're playing the 74th ranked FIBA nation.

Australia crashed the boards to the tune of 55-24. It forced 27 turnovers leaving Syria with the rare stat of more lost possessions than rebounds.

As often has been the case, new faces such as Max Mackinnon and Anthony Dell'Orso looked encouraging prospects, Jacob Holt rekindled memories of Cam Bairstow and all 11 players of the roster stand-in coach Jacob Chance used, scored.

Australia's 36-11 second period clearly was the most decisive in a match where dribbling on the spot for the last play only served to deny the Aussies a chance to top their highest score so far, the 124 of their Guam rout.

Earlier, two huge blocks by New Zealand's Sam Waardenburg on Iran's last play preserved a 93-91 overtime victory for the Tall Blacks.

Shea Ili produced an outstanding game with a match-high 24 points at 60 per cent and six assists.

AUSTRALIA 123 (Pepper 32, Travers 14, Bannan, Dell'Orso 11, Mackinnon 10; Holt, Bannan 8 rebs; Froling, Daniels 4 assts) d SYRIA 64 (Justice 21, Maran 12; 3 with 3 rebs; Alkordy, Justice 4 assts) at Mall of Asia Arena, Manila.

NEW ZEALAND 93 (Ili 24, Mennenga 15, Te Rangi 13, Waardenburg 11, Cameron 10; Mennenga 13 rebs; Ili 6 assts) d IRAN 91 (Aghajanpour 19, Amini 16, Jafari 14, Jamshidi 12; Kazemi 9 rebs; Jafari 6 assts) in Overtime {80-80} at Mall of Asia Arena, Manila.

Pics courtesy of fiba.com