Australia is one win away from qualifying for next year's Olympic Games after victory in the opening match of its best-of-three championship against New Zealand.

The Boomers ground down the Tall Blacks with a tough defensive third quarter to win 79-67 and take a 1-0 lead in the series to decide Oceania's automatic qualifier for next year's Beijing Games.

Boomers centre David Andersen led his side's scorers with 20 points, with skipper Sam Mackinnon and Glen Saville also outstanding.

Mackinnon finished with 18 points and seven rebounds, while Saville netted 16 points - 12 in the first half of the Commonwealth Games gold medal re-match at Vodafone Arena.

The Boomers broke open a hard-fought first half late in the second quarter, when the Tall Blacks went into a defensive meltdown late to gift its rivals two baskets on turnovers and a six-point half-time lead.

Then Australia's smothering defence shut down the Tall Blacks' offence in the third quarter - the Kiwis shooting a woeful 17 per cent from the field in the term.

The Boomers led by 13 points at three-quarter-time and virtually maintained that gap to the finish.

Tall Blacks guard Kirk Penney led his side's scoring with 20 points.

Australia can seal the series with victory in game two in Sydney on Wednesday night, with the final game of the series in Brisbane on Friday.

The loser of the series faces a difficult job to qualify for the Olympics, having to make it through a repechage tournament next year against European and South American opponents.

Australian coach Brian Goorjian praised his side's defensive effort, which he felt proved the difference between the two sides.

But he believed his understrength squad, minus four key players, still had improvement left in games two and three.

"They've got a fairly strong reputation for how they execute in the half-court and the focus for us to win the game was going to have to be from the defensive end of the floor," Goorjian said.

"But I thought offensively we stagnated. There were combinations out there for three and four-minute periods who have only played together for about 30 minutes."

"The exciting part for us is that I believe we can play a lot better offensively."

Tall Blacks coach Nenad Vucinic lamented his side's sloppiness with the ball, as it coughed up 18 turnovers to Australia's seven for the match.

"We just didn't execute well and turned the ball over too much," he said.

"We had a really poor third quarter and we lost that third quarter by seven points. Against a quality team like Australia, you're not going to get back."

"I thought there was an issue with composure, which we shouldn't have with the experience we've got."

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Photo: Kangaroo Photos