MELBOURNE, Australia – Former Washington State men's basketball standouts Aron Baynes and Brock Motum scored 19 and 14 points, respectively, as they helped lead the Australian National Team, the Boomers, to a 93-63 victory over current-Cougar,
Josh Hawkinson, and the Pac-12 All-Stars in the final game of the team's Australian tour, Tuesday at Hisense Arena.
Baynes was 9-for-13 from the field (.692), while Motum was 4-for-7 (.571) as the Boomers shot .500 (31-for-62) as a team from the field. Current member of the NBA's San Antonio Spurs, Patty Mills, led the Aussies with 29 points and 5 assists. Utah Jazz team member, Joe Ingles dished out 11 of the Boomers' 29 assists, while adding 8 points. Baynes added 8 rebounds, while Motum led all rebounders with 9 boards.
Hawkinson was 1-for-2 from the field with 2 points in 11 minutes of action. Arizona State's Tra Holder and Utah's Lorenzo Bonam led the Pac-12 All-Stars with 9 points each, while Arizona's Kadeem Allen and Oregon State's Drew Eubanks chipped in 8 points each. Eubanks tied the team-high with 5 rebounds, while Holder led his team with 4 assists.
"I am very proud of this group," Pac-12 All-Stars head coach Mike Montgomery said. "We had a couple days of practice and then played these games. They performed well against a veteran team in Australia. Our guys accepted the challenge and I was pleased with each and every one of these guys. We are very appreciative these guys gave up part of their summer to play with this team. It was a lot of fun to coach them."
The Boomers opened an early lead, taking advantage of a cold-shooting Pac-12 All-Stars (4-of-16 from the field) in the first quarter.
Holding a 22-13 lead after the opening 10 minutes, the Boomers looked to increase their advantage. However, the Pac-12 All-Stars refused to go away, responding with a 7-1 run to cut it to 24-17 midway through the second quarter.
The Pac-12 All-Stars kept it within single digits for most of the first half, before Australia pushed its lead to 40-28 at the break.
Mills took over for Australia in the third quarter, collecting eight of his 29 points in the third period alone. He extended the Boomers' lead to 53-36 with a four-point play midway through the third.
The Pac-12 All-Stars fought into the end, with several highlight-reel plays throughout the contest. Allen took control of the offense early in the game with an acrobatic up and under move over several of Australia's post players to get to the rim for the bucket. Hawkinson navigated his way to the basket with a nice spin move in the paint in the fourth to provide a late highlight for the Pac-12 All-Stars.
Thursday's contest concluded the Pac-12 All-Stars' tour of Australia. A trip that began on July 5 in Los Angeles will conclude Friday morning as the conference's all-star group arrives back in the United States and returns to their respective campuses. The trip provided many cultural experiences and created bonds between conference mates that will last a lifetime.