After battling it out with the best in the world, the Spinners have placed fifth overall at the Under 23 IWBF World Championship in Phuket.
Australia had some nail-biting finishes in their group phase matches, going down to Germany by just two points (53-55) and to the USA by three points (58-61).
But Head Coach, Bradley Ness steered his team to victory against South Africa and Host Nation, Thailand which secured the Spinners a quarterfinal match-up against Spain.
Spain proved too strong however, beating the Aussies 63-77. This set up a rematch against Israel in the 5-8 crossover match.
It was neck and neck with just two points separating the teams at half time, but the Spinners pushed out a lead in the third quarter to be up 40-31 at the end of the term.
Israel fought back to tie the match with 25 seconds to go. But Australia’s Eithen Leard hit a clutch three to seal the victory 53-50.
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Jaylen Brown was the leading point scorer overall, finishing with a double-double of 24 points, 18 rebounds.
While Leard was the next highest point scorer for Australia, finishing on 11 points. In their final match of the tournament, the Spinners took on USA once again in the battle for fifth and sixth. The Spinners took a comfortable win (66-53), finishing their tournament off on a high.
Two Spinners scored a double-double, with Jaylen Brown finishing on 21 points, 17 rebounds. While Thomas McHugh added 19 points and 11 rebounds. Brown finished in the top 10 overall for points scored, finishing with 110 for the tournament, and the top five for points per game with 19.6.
