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Australia vs China |
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2017 FIBA Asia Cup, quarter-finals, Friday August 18 |
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Nouhad Nawfal Sports Complex, Beirut, Lebanon | ||
Australia | China | |
97 | SCORE | 71 |
26 | Q1 | 23 |
19 | Q2 | 19 |
26 | Q3 | 13 |
26 | Q4 | 16 |
The Australian Boomers will be out to continue their domination at the FIBA Asia Cup, when they take on China in the quarter-finals. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 1:30pm (AEST).
The Boomers have been excellent during their first foray into the Asian competition, playing without their NBA superstars, and arguably some of the bigger NBL players.
The only Rio Olympian on the squad, David Andersen has been ruled out of the rest of the tournament with injury, but it’s been forward Mitch Creek leading the way after he recently spent time in the NBA’s summer league.
Australia have come away with three big wins during the group stage, going over Japan 84-68, Hong Kong 99-58 and Chinese Taipei 90-50.
All of those wins have seen Australia unchallenged at either end of the floor, with Creek averaging 15.7 points and almost two steals a game. Sydney Kings star Brad Newley has also been on fire, leading the way for assists and adding plenty at the offensive end as he did during the previous NBL season.
As a team, the Boomers are going at more than 60 per cent from the field, although their shooting behind the arc is down to 30. China do hold an edge there, but haven’t faced a defence like the Aussies yet.
The Chinese team played the Philippines, Qatar and Iraq during the group stage, losing their first game by nine, before picking up a pair of narrow victories to qualify for the next stage of the tournament.
A 25-point win over Qatar put them in good stead, before they held their nerve to beat Iraq 61-60 in a low-scoring game.
That moved them into the qualification matches for the quarter-final, where they came away with another tight two-point win over Syria.
While China are proving their worth in getting out of tight situations, the quality of opponent leaves plenty to be desired, as does their discipline with the team conceding 20 fouls per game and being out re-bounded comprehensively.
If they are to fire here, then Ailun Guo will be the key man. He has averaged 18 points per game for the tournament, the guard also chipping in with creativity and good perimeter defence.
Recently, an all-NBL Australian team toured China, losing the series. While much of the team is similar for the Boomers, there was some serious home-cooking during that series for the hosts, and playing in Lebanon will not afford them the same level of decisions.
The winner will move onto the semifinals with a likely match-up against New Zealand, who play Jordan in their quarter-final.
Prediction
The Boomers should be far too strong for China here. Despite the Chinese beating the NBL team at home, playing out of China has been a bridge to far in the past, and will be here with the Boomers matching up better man for man across the roster.
Boomers by 18.
Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of this quarter-final from 1:30am (AEST) and don’t forget to add a comment below.