AUCKLAND (FIBA U19 World Championship) - Australia has again used a fast start to propel itself to another important victory in Group C of the FIBA U19 World Championship, this time over Spain by seven points.

Swingman Ryan Broekhoff was the catalyst, scoring 12 first half points, six in each quarter, as Australia jumped to a 20-11 quarter time lead and never looked back.

Broekhoff finished with 16 points on 6/8 shooting and 7 rebounds, and received excellent support from Brock Motum with 14 points and 6 rebounds, and Jorden Page with 10 points.

But Australia’s defence was the story of the game, extending its lead to 33-23 at half time and 55-41 at the last change, while a late Spain rally reduced the difference to 69-62 at the final whistle.

Spain’s lack of a true post target allowed Australia to extend its defence to cover the three point shot, confident in their excellent help defence to cover the basket.

Spain, the best three point shooting team at last year’s 2008 U18 European Championship, could manage just 1/13 from the perimeter for the first half and 5/24 for the game. Overall Spain shot 26/67 from the field. Australia shot the ball at 47% from the field and 33% from the three point line.

Spain’s best contributor was 200cm Toni Vicens with 17 points on 7/13 shooting and 7 rebounds. They next play Canada at 5:00pm Saturday in a game that will decide second place in the group and could be important for quarter final qualification.

Australia has now all but secured first place in Group C, provided it defeats Syria tomorrow morning at the North Shore Events Centre.


They said :

Jorden Page, Australian guard :

“If you scout a team well enough, and come out and stick to your plan you can get the job done. The key against Spain was to help but not over-help, because if you over-help they will be shooting open threes all night.

We’re always confident because on our day we can beat anyone. We just have to come out confident and stick to our plan, because our coaches are coaching really well, they are scouting well, so if we stick to our plan we’ll get it done.”

Juan Orenga, Spain coach :

“Before the game we knew what might happen in the game, Australia is a very tough team. We found it very difficult to score. We were going to have to be very good in defence. In defence we were great, because they only scored 79 points, but in offence we have to make a lot of shots, which we didn’t.

(Our zone) was something we were hiding in the earlier games, because it is one of our best points of difference.

We are a team that has to shoot that shot (3-pointer) a lot, so if we make it we win, if we miss it we lose!”

They are a very fast team and they shoot a lot. We have to be good in defence again but we have to score more this time.”

FIBA