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Emus win gold at World Championships!
BOXSCORE
The Emus Australian Under 19 men’s team have swept to Australia’s first-ever men’s basketball gold medal at the World Championships for Junior Men in Thessaloniki, Greece by comprehensively defeating Lithuania in the final this morning, 126-92.
The Emus turned the tables on the Lithuanians in record style, who had defeated the Australians earlier in the second round. The Australians 126 points was the largest in a final in the competition’s history as was the margin of victory.
Tournament standout Andrew Bogut showed once again why he was the talk of the tournament by scoring 35 points and adding 14 rebounds for Australia. Bogut was rewarded with tournament Most Valuable Player honours as well as selection to the All-Star Five. Steven Markovic also had 30 points for the Emus and Matthew Knight and Brad Newley contributed 17 and 16 points respectively in a dominant performance by the Australians. Linas Kleiza led Lithuania with 26 points.
Emus coach Rob Beveridge was ecstatic that his team managed such a turnaround performance against the strong Lithuanians.
“Lithuania is one of the most complete teams of the tournament, both on the perimeter and under the basket,” said Beveridge. “They had dominated completely in our previous game and we knew that we had to play differently tonight and run, if we wanted to win. Right now I am the proudest coach. I have twelve great players, that were all focused, never caused any trouble, they believed in themselves and proved that Australia has something good to offer to basketball.”
Markovic said the Emus knew they had to pressure the Lithuanians to take the gold.
“We knew we had to press in order to win and we did it,” said Markovic. “I am really happy to have won and I just want to enjoy the moment.”
Playing the gold medal game at the Alexandrio Sport Arena, the Emus were looking to go one better than their silver medal in the 1995 World Championship in Greece.
The Australians started strongly and built a 10-point lead by quarter time, 35-25.
By halftime, the margin had increased to 21, 71-50, on the back of some near flawless shooting by the Australians.
Astonishingly, the Australians broke the magical 100-point barrier by the end of the third period, going into the final change up by an incredible 26-points, 100-74.
The Lithuanians simply had now answer for the scoring of the Australians and couldn’t bridge the gap in the final period. The Emus clinched their historic gold medal with a stunning 34-point win, 126-92.
Lithuanian coach Raimundus Kairys said the Emus won in all areas and that his team was tired after their emotional Semi Final against Greece.
“I would like to congratulate Australia for winning the gold medal and playing great games,” he said. “Not every team can play like that on every game. Yesterday we spent a lot of energy trying to beat the Greek team and tonight we were kind of lost on the floor. They beat us on all aspects of the game.”
Australia shot a sizzling 35-of-58 from the field including 11-of-19 three-pointers. The Emus did a remarkable job containing the big Lithuanian team on the boards, out-rebounding the Europeans 47-33.
In the bronze medal playoff, hometown favourites Greece thrilled the crowd with a 73-64 win over Croatia. The heavily favoured US team, which Australia beat in the Quarter Finals to eliminate from medal contention, finished fifth after narrowly defeating Puerto Rico, 73-64.
FINAL STANDINGS
1. AUSTRALIA
2. LITHUANIA
3. GREECE
4. CROATIA
5. USA
6. PUERTO RICO
7. SLOVENIA
8. TURKEY
9. VENEZUELA
10. ARGENTINA
11. NIGERIA
12. KOREA
13. ANGOLA
14. CHINA
15. MALAYSIA
16. IRAN
All-Star Five Voting
(Out of a possible eight votes cast by the coaches of the top eight placed teams)
Andrew Bogut 8 (Australia)
Linas Kleiza 7 (Lithuania)
Costas Vasiliadis 6 (Greece)
Jose Barea 5 (Puerto Rico)
Roko Ukic 5 (Croatia)
MVP of the tournament: Andrew Bogut (Australia)
BOXSCORE
The Emus Australian Under 19 men’s team have swept to Australia’s first-ever men’s basketball gold medal at the World Championships for Junior Men in Thessaloniki, Greece by comprehensively defeating Lithuania in the final this morning, 126-92.
The Emus turned the tables on the Lithuanians in record style, who had defeated the Australians earlier in the second round. The Australians 126 points was the largest in a final in the competition’s history as was the margin of victory.
Tournament standout Andrew Bogut showed once again why he was the talk of the tournament by scoring 35 points and adding 14 rebounds for Australia. Bogut was rewarded with tournament Most Valuable Player honours as well as selection to the All-Star Five. Steven Markovic also had 30 points for the Emus and Matthew Knight and Brad Newley contributed 17 and 16 points respectively in a dominant performance by the Australians. Linas Kleiza led Lithuania with 26 points.
Emus coach Rob Beveridge was ecstatic that his team managed such a turnaround performance against the strong Lithuanians.
“Lithuania is one of the most complete teams of the tournament, both on the perimeter and under the basket,” said Beveridge. “They had dominated completely in our previous game and we knew that we had to play differently tonight and run, if we wanted to win. Right now I am the proudest coach. I have twelve great players, that were all focused, never caused any trouble, they believed in themselves and proved that Australia has something good to offer to basketball.”
Markovic said the Emus knew they had to pressure the Lithuanians to take the gold.
“We knew we had to press in order to win and we did it,” said Markovic. “I am really happy to have won and I just want to enjoy the moment.”
Playing the gold medal game at the Alexandrio Sport Arena, the Emus were looking to go one better than their silver medal in the 1995 World Championship in Greece.
The Australians started strongly and built a 10-point lead by quarter time, 35-25.
By halftime, the margin had increased to 21, 71-50, on the back of some near flawless shooting by the Australians.
Astonishingly, the Australians broke the magical 100-point barrier by the end of the third period, going into the final change up by an incredible 26-points, 100-74.
The Lithuanians simply had now answer for the scoring of the Australians and couldn’t bridge the gap in the final period. The Emus clinched their historic gold medal with a stunning 34-point win, 126-92.
Lithuanian coach Raimundus Kairys said the Emus won in all areas and that his team was tired after their emotional Semi Final against Greece.
“I would like to congratulate Australia for winning the gold medal and playing great games,” he said. “Not every team can play like that on every game. Yesterday we spent a lot of energy trying to beat the Greek team and tonight we were kind of lost on the floor. They beat us on all aspects of the game.”
Australia shot a sizzling 35-of-58 from the field including 11-of-19 three-pointers. The Emus did a remarkable job containing the big Lithuanian team on the boards, out-rebounding the Europeans 47-33.
In the bronze medal playoff, hometown favourites Greece thrilled the crowd with a 73-64 win over Croatia. The heavily favoured US team, which Australia beat in the Quarter Finals to eliminate from medal contention, finished fifth after narrowly defeating Puerto Rico, 73-64.
FINAL STANDINGS
1. AUSTRALIA
2. LITHUANIA
3. GREECE
4. CROATIA
5. USA
6. PUERTO RICO
7. SLOVENIA
8. TURKEY
9. VENEZUELA
10. ARGENTINA
11. NIGERIA
12. KOREA
13. ANGOLA
14. CHINA
15. MALAYSIA
16. IRAN
All-Star Five Voting
(Out of a possible eight votes cast by the coaches of the top eight placed teams)
Andrew Bogut 8 (Australia)
Linas Kleiza 7 (Lithuania)
Costas Vasiliadis 6 (Greece)
Jose Barea 5 (Puerto Rico)
Roko Ukic 5 (Croatia)
MVP of the tournament: Andrew Bogut (Australia)
