Win an Aussie golden double
THE Boomers completed a golden double for Australian basketball at the Commonwealth Games with an 87-47 victory over Canada yesterday.
A day after the Opals’ 44point romp over England in the women’s final, the Boomers outhustled, outmuscled and outclassed the Canadians in an at-times spiteful gold medal mismatch.
With Chris Goulding on fire early, Australia put its foot on Canada’s throat and led 20-10 at quarter-time before turning the screws in the second term.
It took Canada the best part of six minutes to score as the Boomers went on a 14-0 run to open up a 45-19 buffer at halftime.
Tempers started to fray in the second term with several players – and Canada’s bench – receiving technical fouls under the strain of Australia’s suffocating defence and offensive execution.
The Canadians had played their grand final in their stunning semi-final upset of New Zealand on Saturday, and had nothing left in the tank, while the Boomers were full of running and extended their lead to 63-29 at the last break.
Goulding, 29, topscored with 11 points while Nathan Sobey and Nick Kay had 10 each.
The gold medal completed a dream month for Goulding after he led Melbourne United to the NBL title and won the grand final MVP.
“Medals, whatever they are, don’t come around too often,” he said.
“The majority of this group got a medal a the FIBA Asia Cup, and once you get a taste for winning you want more.
“Happy to bring a few more guys in and come away with a Commonwealth gold – it’s something I never thought I would do as a child.
“I don’t really have a ladder of when and where, but I’ve had a few big weeks (and am) really happy.”
Boomers coach Andrej Lemanis said his team wanted to be built on defence first, and that had held them in good stead.
“They’re inspirational in the way they go about their business and the attitude that they give to it – and as you see, they’re able to produce on the international stage,” he said. “As a team we really took on that (defensive) identity over the course of the tournament – that we could shut people down.
“Our depth allowed us to sustain a level over the course of the 40 minutes and we were able to wear teams out.”
New Zealand scored a hard-fought 79-69 win over Scotland in the bronze medal playoff.