Sponsored by:
Specialising in Action, Team and Portrait Photography.
---
Advertising opportunities available.
Please contact me.
---
Up-and-down, that's the way the ball bounces
TweetUP-and-down day for our national teams on tour ahead of World Cup and World Championship campaigns respectively, the Boomers up, the Opals down.
Euroleague veteran David Andersen led the Boomers' 80-57 assault over Finland with a 10-point (71 per cent), 10-rebound double in Strasbourg.
Retaining his newfound spot in the starting quintet, Ryan Broekhoff responded with 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting, 4-of-5 threes, in 21 minutes.
The Aussies got solid contributions across the board, leading by as many as 25 before wrapping up a win built on a decisive 25-11 second quarter.
THE Opals suffered a surprise 62-55 loss in Istanbul to Canada, Liz Cambage with a 16-point, eight-rebound contribution.
Bec Allen stamped her ticket to Turkey with 13 points while continuing to be one of the team’s toughest defenders.
“I thought we were a little flat out there tonight and they made us pay,” Opals coach Brendan Joyce said.
Brazil is next on the Opals’ schedule, France to be the Boomers’ last scheduled opponent ahead of the Cup in Spain.
AFTER trouncing Puerto Rico in an exhibition today, the USA announced its final 12-man roster for the World Cup.
It is DeMarcus Cousins (Sacramento Kings), Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors), Anthony Davis (New Orleans Pelicans), DeMar DeRozan (Toronto Raptors), Andre Drummond (Detroit Pistons), Kenneth Faried (Denver Nuggets), Rudy Gay (Sacramento Kings), James Harden (Houston Rockets), Kyrie Irving (Cleveland Cavaliers), Mason Plumlee (Brooklyn Nets), Derrick Rose (Chicago Bulls) and Klay Thompson (Golden State Warriors).
(Damn. Guess that definitively rules out Kyrie Irving as an Aussie …)
The US has been starting with Irving and Curry at guard, Harden and Faried at forward and Anthony Davis at centre.
IN more positive news for Australian basketball, four-time Opals Olympian Sandy Brondello today was named the WNBA’s Coach of the Year.
In her first season as coach of the Phoenix Mercury and with Opals 2006 World Champions Penny Taylor and Erin Phillips in her lineup, Brondello steered the club to a league-best 29-5 record and the highest single-season win total in WNBA history.
Phoenix improved its win total by 10 games from last year in a run which included a 16-game winning streak, the second longest in WNBA history.
And just in case you missed it, here is Erin on the Opals and about playing for Phoenix at:
