The Boomers have gotten their 2019 Basketball World Cup campaign off to the ideal start, defeating Canada in their first match by 16 points.
Australia were the dominant side for most of the match, but a monster run through the early going of the second half for Canada meant the scoreboard probably didn’t end up reflecting the game.
The Boomers managed to keep kicking away from Canada every time they started to close the gap in what was an impressive performance.
However, Andrej Lemanis has plenty to work on with his side, with the Boomers making plenty of turnovers. They finished the game with 13, but made a number back to back during the early running of the second half to go with a number of poor shot options.
After the Aussies took a nine-point lead into the end of the first period and a 12-point advantage at halftime, they lost all of that advantage early during the second half.
The Boomers recovered but had the game tied by that point as Cory Joseph and Kevin Pangos led the North American’s onto the front foot in the contest.
With ten minutes to go, Canada had taken a one-point lead, only some superb shooting from Matthew Dellavedova and Patty Mills keeping it that close, after the Boomers fell behind by six points at one point during the end of the third.
Dellavedova, who led all scorers and finished the game with 24 points, was huge into the fourth period as well as the Boomers kicked up a gear and ran away with the game, while Patty Mills and Joe Ingles ended up with 15 and 13 points respectively.
Chris Goulding may have been the X-Factor off the bench for the Boomers though, putting up points in crucial situations throughout the contest as he ended with 16, while Jock Landale was immense across the game.
The Boomers will now move on to face Senegal in what is an incredibly tough Group H on Tuesday, while Canada will be in a must-win situation against Lithuania.
Australia – 108
Canada – 92
More to come.
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