The New Zealand fans turned out in force to will their team on in the third and final match of the 2005 FIBA Oceania Championship for Men.

The Edgar Stadium in Dunedin on the South Island of New Zealand was playing host to its first game of international basketball. The facility has a seating capacity of 3,500 and every seat was occupied.

The courtside announcer on several occasions during the night sought out any Australian supporters to cheer on their team with little success, but when he invited the Tall Blacks fans to let their support be heard, they almost lifted the roof off the building.

The Tall Blacks gave them plenty to cheer about as they worked desperately to take one win from the three match series. At one stage it seemed like they could achieve that. At the quarter time break they were ahead 17 to 12 with Jones, Boucher and Bradshaw finding the bottom of the net. The second period was also a good one for the Tall Blacks, although evenly divided in the scoring honours and they went to the half time break with a 5 point buffer.

The Australians quickly took that away with some pressing defence to start the third quarter and with a 30 to 16 scoreline they took control of the period. From that time on the Kiwis were always playing catch up basketball and in fact almost matched the Aussies point for point in scoring in the fourth quarter. However the strong third quarter which saw 9 points to Australia David Andersen, 8 to Mark Worthington and 6 to Brad Newley laid the basis for the win by the Boomers.

Clearly from the reaction of the crowd, the Tall Blacks did nothing to disappoint their fans. They were local heroes after the game and the autograph hunters were out in force with pen and camera to capture the moment the Tall Blacks came to town.