Fabijan Krslovic shines as Australia trounce France, 64-42: FIBA U17 World Championship Update
Fabijan Krslovic was on song he netted 13 points and had 8 rebounds for Australia and helped his team to hand over a 64-42 defeat to France. After this win Australia improved to a 4-1 record in group A of 2012
FIBA U17 World Championship.
Fabijan stepped up at the moment when key Aussie players like Dante Exum and Ben Simmons were struggling to discover their shooting touch, the 13 points performance rekindled the fire and Australia proceeded
towards the quarterfinals. Felix Kalau von Hofe added 11 points and power-forward Matt Jackson chipped in with 9 points.
Aussie’s were playing without their key players as the coach decided to rest them before the major event, but even then the rest of squad got the job done. After this win they proceeded towards the quarterfinals
to meet Argentina.
“We played very good defence. I was really pleased that all our players got to play decent minutes,” said Australia coach Guy Molloy. “We wanted to try to rest our key players.”
On the other hand France, already eliminated from the quarterfinals, were playing to salvage some pride. Paul Rigot was the only player to score in double figures; he netted 11 points and had 2 boards, while
guard Arthur Rozenfeld poured in 8 points.
The game started evenly as early in the opening frame the scores were tied at 5 each. Australia blasted their way out of the stalemate with an 11-3 burst and claimed a 16-8 lead. France used a 5-nothing burst
at the end of frame and trimmed down the lead to 16-13.
With 3 minutes and 3 second remaining in the 2nd stanza Australia were having a 26-19 lead, they came up with a 6-0burst and capped off the first half at 32-21.
With a 6-2 burst early in the third Australia managed to grab a 15 points, 38-23 lead. However they went cold afterwards and France used a 10-2 run to trim down the lead to 40-33. Kalau Von Hofe came up with
a long ranger and helped Australia to reclaim 43-33 double-digit lead by the end of 3rd quarter.
France showed some spark in the third but coming into the decisive frame they went ice cold, as they scored only 9 points. The Aussies came up with a 10-2 spurt and widened the gap to 53-35 midway into the fourth.
French could only come as close as 55-40, when Australia bagged the game using a 9-2 burst, final score 64-42.
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