Australia vs. Saudi Arabia 121 - 109 (21665)The Australian camp's confidence was brimming at an all time high after having annihilated Macau in their last encounter. Especially with their next match was up against the Saudis would went all out against New Zealand and looked mentally exhausted after the match. All the media pundits predicted this to not be a close one and expected a thrashing from the Aussies but the Saudis wanted to prove them wrong and surprisingly went all out once again. Was it a mistake?
The Saudis started out strongly taking control right from the word go. They were relentless and played great defence, the crowd were in shocked as they did not know who they were watching. Was this the same Saudi Arabia team that just lost to New Zealand? They were dominating the Aussies and took a commanding lead after the first quarter with a 16 point lead. Looking to turn the deficit around to a lead, Australia started to heat up making shots from everywhere. The Saudis couldn't keep up with Australia's scoring and this allowed Australia to trim the lead down to 5 points at the main break.
Things weren't looking great for the Saudis as the game was slipping away. The coach made sure he let his players know just what they were fighting for, a win keeps their hopes for a World Cup berth alive. The Saudis went into the third quarter full of determination as they fought hard neck and neck with the Aussies. It was a tight quarter and the Aussies closed the gap within 3 points. The fourth quarter was also a close one as there was nothing separating both sides and the game was tied at 109 all with 2 and a half minutes remaining. With so little time remaining, Mansfield
(8157988), Australia's second most capped player stepped up and jacked two successive threes. The Saudis were unable to respond as Australia went hard at it in defence, preventing every chance the Saudis took to get back within the game.
This win for the Aussies secure a semi final berth and barring some sort of catastrophe against Japan in their final group match, Australia looks to finish on top of Pool D.