The Boomers have beaten Georgia 100-84, ending their FIBA World Cup campaign on a high, despite missing the chance to win a medal.
Key points:
- Patty Mills top scored for Australia with 19 points, Dante Exum scoring 18
- Josh Giddey scored 15 to end as Australia’s top scorer of the tournament
- Duop Reath added 16 points including three, three-pointers
Earlier defeats to Germany and Slovenia meant this final pool-stage match in Okinawa was a virtual dead rubber.
But despite falling short against those higher ranked teams, Australia still wanted to end the tournament on a high, which is exactly what the Olympic bronze medallists managed.
Patty Mills led the side with 19 points, while Dante Exum added 18 and Duop Reath 16 — including a perfect three-point shooting display of three from three — as five Aussie players hit double figures.
Josh Giddey had 15 points with four assists, while Joe Ingles made 10 points with a team-high six assists.
Giddey, 20, ended his tournament with 20.5 points per game and 6.5 assists per game, leading Australia at the tournament, the youngest ever player to do so.
Despite missing out on a quarterfinal berth and a chance to better their fourth-placed finish last time out, Australia have confirmed their spot at the Paris 2024 Olympics after finishing higher then New Zealand.
Although there will be huge disappointment not to have made the knockout rounds, falling short against teams they will have to beat to be in medal contention in Paris, the Boomers will look forward to next year’s competition.
“It’s definitely a disappointing result [to leave the World Cup without a medal],” Mills said post-game on ESPN.
“But it was important to us as a playing group that we came out and finished this thing right, finish with a win.
“The positives for us is that we’ve got the Olympics 10 months away and for us to keep building what we’ve started from the foundation point six weeks ago into a very strong Olympics.
“You haven’t seen the best of us, we’ll get away from this now and then get back together soon and the Paris Olympics is what our goal is.”
The Boomers lead from the outset with a 23-17 first quarter, which blew out to a 16-point lead at half-time.
Mills had 16 points in the first half to lead the Aussies into that big 53-37 half-time lead, which extended to a game-high 20 early in the third quarter.
Georgia closed to within 12 points at the final break thanks to Orlando Magic centre Goga Bitadze’s game-high 20 points with Thad McFadden scoring 18.
But Australia steadied and blew that lead back out to 20 to seal a comfortable victory.
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