Two years after its biggest basketball embarrassment, Australia took revenge in style with a 79-66 win over New Zealand in game one of the Oceania Championship in Bendigo.

With Perth Wildcats forward Tony Ronaldson's outstanding 19 points and Shane Heal dishing up seven assists, the Boomers made amends for their 2001 Oceania Championship loss to the Tall Blacks which cost Australia a world titles berth.

If revenge is a dish best served cold, the Boomers couldn't have picked a better place than chilly Bendigo to do it - New Zealand starting the match as cold as the single digit temperatures outside.

The rebuilding Boomers out-hustled, out-defended and out-shot the Tall Blacks from the tip off, racing to a 19 point half time lead.

Poor shooting crippled the Kiwis - their 25 per cent from the field in the first half ensuring they would have to play catch up against a pumped up Boomers side.

But despite closing to within nine points late in the match with better second half shooting, it was a mountain too high for the world's fourth ranked team.

New Zealand was best served by Kirk Penney with 22 points and skipper Pero Cameron with nine rebounds.

Tempers flared several times during the match and boiled over in the third quarter when Australia's Chris Anstey and New Zealand's Ed Book nearly came to blows mid court after a running battle throughout.

Both teams have already qualified for next year's Athens Olympics regardless of the results of this week's three match series, but it will determine the seedings for the Olympic draw.

Game two of the series will be held in Geelong on Wednesday night with the final match at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre on Thursday.

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