Serbs Sink Boomers In Build-up To Olympic Qualifiers
The Age
Saturday August 4, 2007
AUSTRALIA'S Boomers have stumbled in an international tournament in Bormio, Italy, losing 71-66 to Serbia yesterday (Melbourne time) after wins over Austria and Turkey.
The Boomers tied the scores at 66 with only 45 seconds to play when guard Damien Ryan hit a three-pointer, but the Serbs quickly responded with a three and closed the game with two free throws.Glen Saville had 14 points, David Andersen 12 and Brad Newley, over a stomach virus and a twisted ankle, had 10. Sam Mackinnon was the leading rebounder with 12."Each game we've played, the quality of the opposition has gotten better and even though we lost, there were a lot of good things that came out of tonight," coach Brian Goorjian said after the game. "We played all players, so we had a deep rotation."The results on this tour aren't as important as making progress and we made progress in this game. We're here to get better for when we face New Zealand and were doing that."The Boomers' best-of-three series against NZ is Oceania's Olympic qualifier.It will be held in Australia, starting in Melbourne on August 20.The Tall Blacks have just finished a tournament in Macau with a 2-3 record, beating Slovenia and Venezuela and losing to Angola, China and a team from the NBA's development league. They will play three games in Latvia, against Belarus, Lithuania and Latvia, starting this weekend.The Boomers finished second in their Bormio pool and were to play Italy in a semi-final early today. Serbia and Croatia are the other semi-finalists.The winners will play for the gold medal, the losers for bronze and then Australia will play a friendly against Senegal before leaving for Istanbul to play two games against Turkey.Australia's junior women, the Gems, lost to Serbia 64-57 in their last round-robin of the world titles in the Slovak Republic, taking their record to 5-1.They were to play Spain in a quarter-final early today.
© 2007 The Age
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