Even Australia’s B team has shown they’ll be a force to be reckoned with at the Tokyo Olympics after Chris Goulding inspired the understrength Boomers to a crushing 108-69 win over Nigeria in Las Vegas.
Just a day after stunning the US 91-83, Australia rested stars Patty Mills, Joe Ingles, Aron Baynes and Matthew Dellavedova against Nigeria in Wednesday’s pre-Olympics exhibition game.
Despite missing almost their entire starting side, the Boomers came out firing and led 49-26 late in the second quarter before cruising to victory.
Australia were unstoppable from long range, nailing 18-of-29 in a remarkable shooting display.
Goulding was the hottest hand of the lot, draining all seven of his long bomb attempts on the way to 21 points in 22 minutes of court time.
He already had six three-pointers to his name by three-quarter time, but he spent several minutes on the bench in the last quarter and put up just one more shot for the match.
“I’ll be honest, at professional level if I’ve hit seven in a row, I’m probably shooting another 10 more,” Goulding told ESPN.
“It’s a little bit different here at international level.
“We’ve got a good system. I’ve been playing in it for quite a lot of years now. I’m pretty confident in where I can find my shots.”
Boomers centre Duop Reath (17 points), Nathan Sobey (15), Jock Landale (14 ), Josh Giddey (14 ) and Josh Green (11) all shared the scoring loads.
Nigeria, who beat the US last week before thrashing world No.4 Argentina 94-71 on Tuesday, struggled to get their offensive going.
Josh Okogie (10 points) and Obi Emegano (10 points) were the only two players to hit double figures, with Nigeria hitting just eight-of-31 from the perimetre.
The Boomers are yet to win an Olympic medal, but confidence is growing they can go all the way in Tokyo after posting wins over Argentina, the US and Nigeria.
“Many Boomers teams have gone close (before),” Goulding said of the prospect of snaring a medal.
“There’s so many guys who have been a part of this program for the past 15 years.
“So to have the pain of tournaments where it hasn’t gone our way – we’re focused, we’ve got one goal and that’s to win a gold medal.”
Australia open their Olympic campaign against Nigeria; with Italy and Germany also in their group.
The Boomers will be back in action on Saturday when they take on the US in a highly-anticipated rematch.
The US broke a rare two-game losing run on Wednesday with a 108-80 win over Argentina.
AAP
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