MEN'S DAY FOUR BEIJING
Andrew Bogut’s showing which led
David Andersen put his experience of playing for Russian club CSKA Moscow to good use, contributing 11 points and five boards. CJ Bruton who averaged a meager 4 points from the previous three games, rose to the occasion with 22 points, sharing the scoring honors for the game with Bogut.
Andersen and Bogut together were seven of nine from the floor in the first half. They nailed six of 14 from behind the arc in the first two quarters, which ended 49-33 in the Boomers’ favor.
“Nobody believes in us but us,” Bogut said. “Everyone is doubting us. People didn’t think we were going to get to the next round so this is an accomplishment. This was our goal going into the Olympics.”
Mark Worthington’s three-point play sparked a 13-0 run for the Aussies, for a 32-16 lead early in the second quarter, a difference they maintained going to the changing rooms.
About two minutes into the third quarter, Alexey Savrasenko managed to cut the deficit to 44-51, but that was the closest
Viktor Khryapa, a player in whom
“Andrew Bogut is the cornerstone of this team,” Goorjian said.
“When we win he is great, when we lose it’s Andrew Bogut’s fault.”
“You have to tip off your hat to
“They played great basketball and there’s no denying they were much better,” the American added.
Manu Ginobili, the MVP of the
“It just happened. I made a couple of shots, I felt good and started shooting threes and they all went in,” Ginobili said.
Luis Scola – a favorite among Chinese fans thanks to his playing along side Yao Ming for Houston Rockets – scored 20 points and collected seven rebounds.
“We didn’t play great today,” Ginobili said.
“We rested a little bit, not because we wanted to, but that’s the way it looked.
“We made too many mistakes.”
Hamed Ehadadi played all of the forty minutes, scored 21 points and collected 16 rebounds to lead the
“It’s a dream result for us,” beamed
“This is a great result to be within 15 points of a team like
“We were competitive for some parts of the game.”
The EuroBasket 2007 bronze medalists trailed 58-62 at the end of the third quarter, but erupted in the fourth quarter.
Linas Kleiza struck with two three-pointers, Simas Jasaitis came up with a three-point play and Sarunas Jasikevicius scored in the lane as
Mindaugas Lukauskis topped the scoring for
“It’s a great win for us,” Lukauskis said.
“We went into sixth gear in the fourth quarter. Everybody wants to win games at the Olympics. We knew we had to give everything we had and we did that.”
“In the third quarter, we started playing more aggressively on defense,”
“We made some changes, started playing faster and like a team.”
“It was a very good game for both teams,”
“I’m really sorry about the start of the fourth quarter. For six minutes, we had a loss of concentration and
“The
Scores
Australia 95 (Andrew Bogut 22, CJ Bruton 22, David Andersen 11, Matt Nielsen 11) bt
Argentina 97 (Manu Ginobili 32, Luis Scola 20, Pablo Prigioni 11) bt Iran 82 (Hamed Ehadadi 21, Hamed Afagh 19, Samad Nikkah 13, Mahdi Kamrani 11). Quarterwise Scores: 19-14, 42-33, 72-57.
Monday, the final day of the men’s preliminary round will see
Going by the form book,
In group B Greece face off with hosts China, Angola take on Spain and USA meet up with Germany.
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