Against undefeated and pool leaders in Turkey, the Australian Spinners have shown they can match it with the best in the competition at the 2017 Under-23 World Championships, just falling short in a 53-60 battle.
Despite the loss, the Spinners are still headed to the Quarter-Finals where they will take on Germany at 5am Thursday AEST with every game for the rest of the tournament a knockout.
Facing Turkey for a chance to finish top of Pool A, their opponents set the tone early with a 13-6 start but Australia responded through Brian Carminati (11 points, seven rebounds, four assists) before a three-pointer from Tom O’Neill-Thorne gave the Aussies a lead at quarter-time.
The lead then changed hands six times through the next two periods with the Spinners able to hold off any Turkey run as well as Enes Bulut’s three three-pointers.
Leading by just three points at the final change, Australia finally relented as Turkey started the fourth period with a 13-1 run.
Jeremy Tyndall (five points, five assists) hit the Spinners’ first field goal of the term with just over three minutes but it sparked a resurgence as O’Neill-Thorne (25 points, nine boards, five assists) followed up another long range bomb before Carminati cut the margin to just two points.
However, Australia left their run too late with Turkey eventually prevailing but the Spinners are sure to take confidence from the performance as we head into the business end of the tournament.
The box score can be found here while you can watch the Spinners games live via the IWBF’s website here.
The Aussies will hit the court at 5am Thursday morning AEST in one of the four Quarter-Finals while Brazil face South Africa in the other classification game.
The Semi-Finals then tip off on Friday morning AEST with the bronze (midnight) and gold (2am) medal games scheduled for late Friday night.
In the spirit of reconciliation Basketball Australia acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.