Boomers to face Tall Blacks in Brisbane for FIBA Asia Cup 2021 qualifiers

The Australian Boomers will be hosting the New Zealand Tall Blacks for the FIBA Asia Cup 2021 qualifiers, in Brisbane's Nissan Arena next year.

The game is expected to take place on 20 February 2020. This is the first time the FIBA Asia Cup has included a qualifying phase, with the Boomers drawn in Group C alongside Guam, Hong Kong and New Zealand. Teams will play each other twice, home and away, during the qualifying phase with three windows set for February 2020, November 2020 and February 2021.

“Basketball Australia is excited to start the defence of our FIBA Asia Cup title in Brisbane, a city and state that is passionate about basketball," Basketball Australia (BA) CEO, Jerril Rechter said. “2019 has been a special year for the Australian Boomers finishing a courageous fourth at the FIBA World Cup, playing two home games against USA Basketball in front of a combined crowd of 103,297, defeating world-leading nations in USA and France, and finishing the year ranked as the Number 3 team in the World.

“This game in Brisbane is a great opportunity for Queenslanders to support arguably Australia’s leading national team in an important Asia Cup qualifier against our traditional rival New Zealand.”

BA's High Performance Manager, Jan Stirling confirmed that newly-appointed Boomers head coach, Brett Brown will not be participating in this event, but "is playing an active role in appointing the coaching staff for February’s qualifiers", with news likely to break as the game nears.

General public on-sale commences at 10.00am (local), Wednesday 18 December 2019 from Ticketek.