Patrick Mills' heroics guide Australia to a 82-80 victory over Russia – Olympics Men Basketball Recap
The Australian men basketball team scored a thrilling victory over Russia in their final preliminary round matchup at the London Olympics.
Patrick Mills, the hero of the game against Great Britain, scored a buzzer beating three pointer as the Aussies narrowly escaped with an 82-80 victory, in a nail biting finish.
Joe Ingles had an amazing night for the Aussies, scoring a game high 20 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists while going 8 of 11 from the field. Mills finished with 13 points and 3 rebounds as Australia fought till the last minute
and resisted a late charge by the Russians.
Sasha Kaun led the Russians in scoring with 18 points and 6 rebounds, going 8 of 10 from the field. Alexey Shved put in another good performance, scoring 13 points and grabbing 6 rebounds in the process.
The Australians opened the scoring in the first period, and it turned out to be a high scoring quarter for both teams. The teams fought hard for the lead, with a handful of points separating them during much of the period.
Leading 20-18, the Aussies went on a 7-0 run to take a 27-18 lead, the highest for the game till that point. The Aussies eventually finished the quarter leading by 29-20.
Russians quickly got into the act in the 2nd period and swallowed the Aussie lead within the first two minutes of the period. A two point shot by Timofey Mozgov had Russia trailing by 30-32, and two free throws by s***n
Antonov tied the scores at 32 with 6:30 left in the period.
Both teams remained neck to neck throughout the rest of the period, and the Aussies managed to take a one point lead into the halftime break, leading 46-45.
Russia took the lead for the first time since the first period with a two point play by Kaun early in the third period, and a three pointer by Anton Ponkrashov gave them a 57-52 advantage with 5:09 left in the quarter.
Australia came back into the game when a three pointer by Mills gave them a 62-59 lead. Brad Newley then scored another three as Australia took a 67-64 lead, and went into the final period leading 69-64.
A two point play by Andrei Kirilenko had Russia down by just 1 at 71-70, but the Aussies scored 4 quick points to extend the lead back to 5.
Kirilenko was hot in the final period, and scored on two free throws which were followed by a three point play as Russia cut the deficit to trail 78-79 with 1:49 left in the game. Vitaliy Fridzon was fouled in the final seconds
of the game and scored on both free throws to give Russia an 80-79 lead with 4 seconds left on the clock. But Mills came through with a buzzer beating three pointer to give the Aussies the victory.
Russia shot 51.8% from the field for the night, and were 7 of 16 from the distance. However, Australia outscored them 38-31 in rebounds and were a perfect 9 of 9 from the foul line.
The win puts Australia in second place in Group B. Russia suffered their first loss of the tournament but remain at the top of Group B with 4 wins.
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