Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers. They will cut you to pieces every dang time.
The Australian Opals‘ Olympic campaign is in absolute tatters, after the highly rated women’s national side was bundled out of the Games by a tenacious but unfancied Serbian team in the quarter final stage of the tournament.
The loss means that Australia will not compete for a medal in women’s basketball for the first time in 24 years.
The Opals entered the game as roaring favourites, having breezed through the group stage of the tournament undefeated. Serbia, on the other hand, had dropped 3 of their 5 games, barely managing to scrape through to the knockout stage.
But form counts for naught when it matters most, and the Serbian team’s dogged defensive play reduced the normally world-class Opals to an absolute rabble.
The Opals conceded an unbelievable 26 turnovers, compared to just 9 from the Serbian team, and appeared frustrated, disorganised, and visibly off their game.
A late scramble in the dying seconds of the fourth quarter could not get the ball to Liz Cambage in time, and the buzzer signalled a 73-71 victory for the underdogs.
Cambage in particular was visibly frustrated and upset throughout the course of the fourth quarter, throwing sloppy elbows and audibly swearing at umpiring decisions. Though her 29 points was a game high.
The Serbian defensive pressure was outstanding and relentless, forcing 16 steals and forcing the Australians to take poor shots more often than not.
The shock loss again derails Australia’s quest for an all-elusive gold medal in women’s basketball, and is the first time since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics that the Opals will not compete for a medal.
I tell ya, the Olympics giveth, and the Olympics taketh away.
Photo: Mark Kolbe/Getty.
