Spain withstand a late charge from Australia to win 82-70 – London Olympics Men Basketball Recap
The Spanish men basketball team faced their first major competition at the 2012 London Olympics when they took on Australia in their second group match.
The Spanish side were left trailing at the end of the first quarter, and narrowly escaped a fourth quarter charge after dominating the 2nd and 3rd periods to come out with an 82-70 victory in the end.
The Spaniards, boasting the best front court in this year’s Olympics with Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka, are the biggest threat to team U.S.A in their attempt for another gold medal finish. And they certainly showed their
potential on Monday.
Pau Gasol led the Spanish scoring with 20 points, going 8 of 13 from the field. Rudy Fernandez ably assisted him with 17 points and 6 rebounds, shooting a near perfect 6 of 7 from the field. Joe Ingles and Brad Newley both scored
12 points for the Australian side, who outscored the Spanish team 28-19 in the final quarter to give them a run for their money.
The first quarter was closely fought by the two sides, with a series of lead exchanges as both sides matched each other’s offense. The largest lead of the quarter came in the final seconds, when Aron Baynes scored a two point shot
from inside the paint to give Australia a 19-14 advantage.
The Spanish side was caught off guard by the Aussies in the first period, but gained control of the game in the 2nd quarter when they finally got into an offense rhythm. After Pau Gasol tied the score at 21 with a two
pointer, the Europeans scored 5 straight points to take a 26-21 lead with 6:17 left in the half.
The Australians kept on fighting though, and only allowed them a 5 point lead at half time.
Spain got into form early in the third period, and started with a 10-0 run that stretched their lead to 15 points within a matter of minutes.
Leading 53-37, Spain added insult to injury when Fernandez scored back to back three pointers and followed that up with a two point shot for a comfortable 61-37 lead.
For all purposes, that was the turning point of the game and the Australians never got a chance to come back into the game. Spain led 63-42 going into the final period.
Australia made one last run at the lead, scoring 10 points within two minutes and denying Spain any field goal during that time to cut the deficit to 64-74. But Spain replied with 4 straight points and kept scoring on crucial attempts
to never let the momentum swing in the direction of the Australians. They eventually won 82-70.
Australia went 4 of 24 from the three point line, a stat which hurt them badly in the end. Spain had the better shooting performance for the night, and also dominated the boards with 56 rebounds compared to 39 for Australia.
The Aussies can take one positive from the game. They limited their turnovers to only 4, while forcing Spain to commit 16 for the night.
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