The Boomers World Cup hopes have been crushed 91-80 by Slovenia, the staff they beat out for the bronze medal on the Tokyo Olympics.
Australia got here into the event with excessive hopes but in addition a goal on their again after ending fourth on the final World Cup and profitable its first senior males’s medal with the Olympic bronze.
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With New Zealand failing to get out of the group levels it implies that the Boomers have routinely booked their tickets to Paris for the 2024 Olympics, however their World Cup objective fell properly quick.
Slovenia and Germany will advance from Group F and Group E after the Germans beat Georgia 100-73 earlier within the day, and the Boomers will solely have a inserting to play for.
Having come into the event ranked third on the earth, Australia will drop dramatically to round ninth pending their ultimate match towards Georgia.
With Dallas Mavericks celebrity Luka Doncic averaging 30 factors for the event for Slovenia main into the match, Australia was in a position to maintain the celebrity to only 20 factors after he was in early foul bother however he was properly supported by Mike Tobey with 18 factors, 12 rebounds, Gregor Hrovat and Klemend Prepelic, who every had 10 factors.
For Australia, it was as soon as once more Josh Giddey who stepped up when Australia wanted it most.
Giddey scored 25 factors with eight rebounds and 4 assists in addition to two steals — regardless that he additionally had six turnovers.
But he got here into his personal within the third quarter, scoring 13 factors to tug the Boomers again into the match.
He was supported by Patty Mills with 17 factors, eight assists and Dante Exum with 13 factors.
However, there was not a lot to put in writing dwelling about for the Boomers.
Speaking after the match, Giddey mentioned the aspect was properly conscious it was a must-win match and was disenchanted to not make the knockout levels.
“These slow starts against these good teams, it’s hard to come back and win and we were playing from behind all night trying to dig ourselves out of a hole that felt like it just kept getting deeper and deeper,” he mentioned.
“Every time we made a run it was hard to sustain. There’s obviously a lot of emotional, this is the end of our tournament, we can’t progress any further. It’s disappointing.”
The autopsy started instantly with the Olympics lower than a yr away, the basketball program scheduled to run from July 27 to August 10, 2024.
Boomers nice and NBA champion Andrew Bogut wrote: “Never a good thing to not be heading the 1/4 finals @ a World Cup but this was a tough campaign to watch.
“Huge drop from our 3rd place in 21.
“Something just didn’t fit with this team. Nothing looked easy for the Boomers.
“This will be our worst finish to a tournament since 2014.
“On to Paris!”
Sporting News’ Jed Wells tweeted: “This tournament hasn’t shown me a lot to love from Goorj, just a complete inability to bring in new young talent apart from Giddey, riding Ingles, Kay, Patty (to a much lesser degree) even when they’re offering significantly diminishing returns. On to Paris I guess.”
Zero Digital Sports GM Nick Splitter commented: “Worst defensive performance I’ve seen by the Boomers in a long, long time.
“Slovenia too big, too strong, wanted it more.
“Australia offence so disjointed and dysfunctional. If Giddey wasnt cooking nobody else had anything, save a couple Exum drives.
“Just an awful display.”
While there was a good bit of pessimism after the misplaced, commentator John Casey mentioned the outcome doubtless confirmed that there was a altering of the guard in basketball, and being a high 10 nation is nothing to sneeze at.
“I’m not too down on that performance to be honest with you,” he mentioned. “If you’re within two of Slovenia in the last quarter when you’ve dug yourself out of a 14-point hole, you’re in the mix.
“Yes, you want to move on but sometimes it’s not your day.
“I know we were No. 3 and we were talking about a podium, but top 10 in the world… The reigning champs got beaten today (World No. 1 Spain lost 74-69 to Latvia), the world No. 5 (France) didn’t even make it this far in the tournament (finished third in Group H) — the world is changing. Basketball is an evolving place.
“Slovenia deserve this, they might win the whole thing.”
Australia was chasing all through the match as Slovenia led from starting to finish.
After taking a 5-0 lead within the opening seconds, earlier than main by 10 on the finish of the primary quarter.
After going to halftime down by 9, the Boomers lastly made some inroads late within the third, reducing the result in simply by the tip of the time period.
While it appeared like Australia was coming dwelling sturdy after reducing the result in simply two, Slovenia righted the ship, getting out to a 19 level lead with two minutes left within the ultimate quarter earlier than Australia added a bit of little bit of respectability.
Source: www.news.com.au
