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Fearless Boomers off to a flyer in takedown of gritty Spain

 

Fearless Boomers off to a flyer in takedown of gritty Spain

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AOC
Jock Landale Boomers Paris 2024

The Boomers were “fearless and courageous” in conquering old foe Spain to open their Paris campaign with a 92-80 win at the Pierre Mauroy Stadium in Lille.

Patty Mills, Joe Ingles and Matthew Dellavedova all played in the Rio 2016 Olympic Team that lost the bronze medal match to Spain, with coach Brian Goorjian tapping into that experience to motivate his players.


“We showed a little video of ‘the past’ to have them locked in. I used a timeout for that,” Goorjian said.

“I thought we were fearless and courageous. We had great guard play and Jock Landale was tremendous down the stretch. 

“We need to get better but defensively from what we’ve been we’re moving forward.” 

Backcourt pair Josh Giddey (17 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists) and Patty Mills (19 points), were on song for the Boomers, with Josh praising the Boomers’ spirit and approach.

"Tonight was the epitome of Australian basketball, just a full team effort,” he said.

“We had contributors all across the board and that's what it's going to take to win a game like this and a tournament like this."

Goorjian started with Dyson Daniels (13 points 7 assists), Nick Kay (8 points), Jock (20 points 9 rebounds 5 assists), Josh and Patty and used nine players in the first quarter. On the first possession of the game Patty drew a foul on a three-point attempt and made all three free throws to settle the team into the match.

Jock made an early three, a dunk and converted an and-one fastbreak opportunity on Alex Abrines.

Spain called the first timeout when Australia was up 18-7 after a tough Josh Giddey layup in traffic, for two of his 11 first-quarter points, with the Spanish in the midst of a cold start including zero for five on three pointers.

Will Magnay, Matthew Dellavedova, Josh Green and Jack McVeigh came off the bench in the first quarter to keep the Boomers’ advantage until the first quarter break, where Australia had nine assists on 11 made field goals.

Josh Giddey made his first five shots, including two three pointers, and was whizzing the ball around to the oohs of a near 30,000 crowd cheering on the Aussies.

Tensions flared late in the first, 28-17, between Usman Garuba and Josh Green after the Australian drew an offensive foul on Garuba.

It carried over to the second quarter, where the physicality intensified, with 14 first-half fouls for both sides.

Spain closed the gap to seven for a 49-42 half-time scoreline, going on a 14-4 run to start the third quarter, taking their first lead of the game at 56-54. The response from the Boomers was swift.

They restored the buffer thanks to back-to-back Patty and Jack threes, a Jock bucket, a series of team steals and solid offensive rebounding.

Spain continued to threaten another comeback, but timely contributions down the fourth-quarter stretch from Patty, Jock and Jack put the result beyond doubt with two minutes remaining.

The Boomers will have two days off before taking on Canada, led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, at 9:30pm AEST on Tuesday 30 July.

“We’ll treat them [Canada] like every other game and make sure we’re ready to go,” Josh Green said.

Dante Exum was unavailable for today’s game and is continuing to recover from a compound dislocation of the right index finger.

Jeff Dickinson-Fox