In a one-nation-show Slovenia dismantled Australia and went through to the quarter finals where they will face the host team of Turkey.
Reaching high performing standards during the entire game Slovenia secured an easier-than-expected win over the Aussies who only resemlbes the team that we had witnessed during the previous games. Now Slovenia will be facing Turkey in the next round, on Wednesday, September 8th.
Slovenia started off the game great and took a 12-0 lead as it took Australia 6 minutes and 39 seconds to score their first point! Australians tried to save whatever was left to save until the end of first quarter but managed little, final score was 16-8.
Australians didn’t learn from their mistaken and history repeated itself as Slovenia tarted off with a quick 6-0 (two threepointers) and the score became 22-8. No matter what Australians tried, noting worked and Slovenians had tremendous accuracy from outside finishing the first half by shooting 50% (8/16) for three. That led to a comfortable double score for Slovenia at half time, 42-21.
Same story in the second half and despite the Australian coach trying to wake up his players by shouting on them nothing really changed. On the contrary the difference kept expanding and at some point Zupan scored yet another threepointer to give Slovenia their maximum lead, 68-40 with less than two minutes to go till the end of third quarter. Final score 71-45 with another quarter remaining.
What happened in the last quarter is hardly worth commenting, as Slovenia walked over Australia with the final score being 87-58. Such a comfortable win is a great psychological boost for the Slovenian side who is traditionally weak when it comes to mentality.
It is worth mentioning that all Slovenian players not only participated in the game but also scored while 11/12 also grabbed at least one rebound.
Score by quarters: 16-8, 42-21, 71-45, 87-58
Slovenia: Lakovic 19, Brezec 12, Dragic 10 (8 ass), Slokar 8, Becirovic 8, Zupan 8, Nachbar 7, Jagodnik 5, Rizvic 4 (2 blk), Udrih 3 (4 to), Vidmar 2, Klobucar 1
Australia: Ingles 13, Mills 13, Nielsen 12 (8 rbs), Andersen 8, Newley 3 (2 blk), Martin 2, Barlow 2, Worthington 2, Baynes 2, Maric 1, Gibson
