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Boomers eliminated

Slovenia send Boomers home

09/05/2010 06:39:01 PM

The Boomers have been eliminated from the World Championships after an 87-58 thrashing against Slovenia in Turkey on Monday morning.

Slovenia shot a scorching 16-of-33 (48 percent) from three-point range in the match to blow the Australians off the floor.

Jaka Lakovic had 19 points to lead Slovenia, while Primoz Brezec added 12 and Goran Dragic 10 as all 12 of the Slovenian players scored.

Joe Ingles and Patrick Mills equal top scored for Australia with 13 points while Matt Nielsen contributed 12 points and eight rebounds.

The Boomers went into the match with confidence after having gone 1-1 in games against the European powerhouses in lead-up matches.

Australia missed their first 10 shots and were on the back foot as Slovenia put 12 points on the board before the Boomers eventually scored their first through Joe Ingles with 3mins 24s remaining in the opening period.

The Boomers reduced the margin slightly by quarter-time but still trailed 16-8.

Any thoughts of a quick comeback were crushed in the second period as the Slovenians, who finished second in Group B in the preliminary round with a 4-1 record, dominated the Australians on both ends of the court.

Australia was outscored 26-13 for the period, as the Europeans rained threes on the Boomers. At the half, Slovenia led 42-21 and had made eight three-pointers while Australia had failed to connect from the perimeter on all seven of their attempts.

Nine first-half turnovers had also hurt the Boomers.

The poor perimeter shooting by the Boomers continued early on in the third as Australia missed another three triples.

It wasn't until David Andersen connected from outside with seven minutes left in the period to make it 48-30 in Slovenia's favour that Australia made their first three of the game.

By three-quarter time Slovenia led 71-45.

Australia tried to work their way back into the game in the final period but the Slovenian offensive barrage was simply unstoppable as the Europeans ran out winners by 29 points.

Slovenia go through to the top eight and play the winner of Turkey and France.
Captain Matthew Nielsen admitted the Boomers’ inaccuracy cost them dearly.

"Slovenia are very strong and they proved that today. They executed very well and our execution was terrible. Having said that, I don't think we are far off from Slovenia's level which might sound a ridiculous comment to make today. But we are without several players and we can play much better than this, we just didn't show it today," Nielsen said.

 
Photograph Copyright : Getty Images


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