Spain silence Australia’s Boomers

Spain despite getting off to a sluggish start, were able to come out on top against Australia, giving them a 2-0 record so far in this Olympic Games

With the loss of captain Juan Carlos Navarro, Spain struggled with Australia early on, but Rudy Fernandez (who took a nasty blow to the back of his head prior to the half-time whistle) and Pau Gasol seemingly put the game out of reach however a late Australian run made 82-70 look a lot more respectable for the Boomers.

Australia are in the bottom three of Pool B together with Great Britain and China, and whoever comes out on top of those three teams will advance to the group stage.

Spain’s big men were tested early on with the Boomers’ front line of Aron Baynes and David Andersen, and the men from Down Under earned an early six-rebound advantage while Spain shot 5/19 in the first quarter, allowing Australia to lead 19-14.

Then, things began to come together for the Spanish, as they hit seven of their next 11 threes – four of five from Fernandez – to pull away from the Australians. Like a domino effect, everything else began to fall into place.

Australia tried their three point shooting out again, despite thinking that a 4/22 performance behind the line against Brazil might have put them off; it didn’t. At one stage they were 3/18 and soon enough, the Spanish had shown that they were without doubt one of the main contenders in the tournament and led by 20.

Australia were fortunate enough to trim this deficit down to just 10 towards the end as Spain rotated to give the bench some minutes on the big stage, but no closer did the Boomers come.

Pau Gasol finished with 20, while Fernandez had 17 on four threes. Marc Gasol added 12 points and seven rebounds.

Next up is Great Britain, and with so much at stake, for both the hosts and the reigning EuroBasket champions, it could be nothing but a mouth-watering game (if you are still a true believer that fate could play its part still?)