THIRD QUARTER: In a wildly-swinging second term with two heavyweights of world basketball trading blows, the lead had changed six times and scores were tied another five times with four minutes to play. With 10 seconds left in the game, Australia’s Aron Baynes hit a hook shot over Gasol to put his team up 88-87.
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Rodriguez made no mistake in converting both and Australia were unable to get a shot off on their final possession.
Spaniard Ruth Beitia won Spain’s first Olympic gold medal in women’s athletics when she took the Rio high jump title to claim her first global outdoor crown at the age of 37 on Saturday.
Patty Mills scored 30 points for Australia, and David Anderson 15, while the Boomers played nearly the entire second half without Andrew Bogut after he had fouled out less than two minutes into the third quarter. He scored 30 points on 11-for-23 shooting, with two assists and three steals.
“It’s disappointing we weren’t able to get a shot away on that last possession to give ourselves a chance”, said Mills, whom the Aussies meant to take the final shot.
“They deserved to be rewarded with a medal”.
It’s the fourth time they’ve fallen short, having also finished fourth in 1988, 1996 and 2000.
Spain pushed team US to their limits in their semifinal encounter before the U.S.’ firepower proved too much to handle.
“They fall over and get fouls and go to the free throw line the whole game”, he said.
“I’ll look back at the tape and see how obviously bad (the calls) were”, Bogut said.
Following the game, five-time Australian Olympian Andrew Gaze, the second leading scorer in the games’ history working in Rio as a TV commentator, summed up the way he and his countrymen were feeling. With Sergio Rodriguez and Pau Gasol really spearheading the Spanish offense to combat Andersen and Patty Mills, it became a back-and-forth affair in the bronze medal game.
It was the latest in a series of incidents involving Australian athletes at the Games.
Nine Australian athletes whose Olympic accreditations were altered could be left stranded in Rio because team officials have not been able to pay their fine. “We have and will continue to provide as much support [as we can] to them and their parents”.
“It’s no longer belief in what we can do”, Mills said. “And I know during the game there were many fouls that the referee didn’t call for us and we said nothing”.
Gasol, who will spend next season in San Antonio and hasn’t committed to playing at Tokyo in 2020, and his teammates celebrated by piling on top of each other near center court.
Asked how it could not be the fault of the athletes, Chiller replied: “We will complete our own internal investigation about how the circumstances arose that the athletes arrived in the venue with accreditations with a different access code to their own”. “We’re going to prepare for the win”.
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It wasn’t the medal they were looking for, but Germany’s men’s handball team leaves with bronze after beating Poland 31-25 on Sunday.
