Australia advance to quarters

The Australian basketball team recorded a big win over the hosts Great Britain last night to earn themselves a spot in the knockout stages with a game left to play.

Great Britain were fighting for survival and had to grab a win in front of a very loud home crowd if they wanted any chance of advancing from the group. GB managed to stretch out to a 15 point lead at the start of the third, courtesy of some nice plays from Chicago Bull Luol Deng, and Portland Trailblazer Joel Freeland.

The Australians managed to eat into the deficit throughout the second half, and capitalised on Great Britain’s sloppiness to take a lead midway through the third. This lead only increased through the fourth and the buzzer sounded to give Australia a massive 106-75 victory. Patty Mills was awesome for the Aussies, as the San Antonio Spur stunned GB with a massive 39 points on the night.

An earlier tournament win against China and 2 losses suffered against Brazil and Spain gives Australia 6 points. They face a tough test against Russia in their final group game tomorrow as they look to grab a better seed for the knockout stages.

It is looking increasingly likely that Australia will take the fourth seed from group B and will take on the United States in the quarters just as they did in Beijing back in 2008. Personally I can see Spain, Argentina and Russia challenging the ‘dream team’, but I think Australia will be outclassed if they do meet.

So, a big win for the Aussies against an improving Great Britain outfit. Their place in the quarters is confirmed, but if Australia can somehow sneak a win against group leaders Russia, this will give them huge levels of confidence moving in to the later rounds of the tournament.