Opals cruise to comfortable win over Brazil

Updated June 27, 2012 08:38:58

Lauren Jackson returned from a hamstring injury to help fire the Opals to a comfortable 80-73 Farewell Series win over Brazil at a sold-out Bendigo Stadium on Tuesday night.

Jackson missed game one of the series but returned as equal top scorer with 15 points alongside Belinda Snell, despite spending just 17 minutes on court.

The 1.96-metre star also pulled down six rebounds as the Opals physically dominated their outmatched opponents before relaxing in the final period.

Australia led by as many as 24 points before being pegged back by a dogged fourth-quarter performance from Brazil, with the two sides paired in the same group at the London Olympics.

Damiris do Amaral top scored with 16 points for the visitors, while Karla Costa chimed in with 14 points.

The match marked a successful hometown farewell for Bendigo-born veteran Kristi Harrower, who celebrated her 200th game in Australian colours.

A teary-eyed Harrower paid tribute to the capacity crowd after the match.

"It was great to come home ... I'm lost for words," Harrower said.

The Opals downed Brazil 85-64 in game one of the three-game series.

The final game will take place at the State Basketball Centre in Knox on Thursday night.

The final game of the Farewell Series will be streamed live on the ABC Grandstand website from 7pm.

Tags: sport, olympics-summer, basketball, bendigo-3550, vic, australia

First posted June 26, 2012 21:12:35

View the original article here

Opals cruise to comfortable opening win

Updated July 29, 2012 10:47:19

Australia has recorded an easy 74-58 win over host nation Great Britain in its opening Olympics women's basketball game.

Opals star Lauren Jackson led the way with 18 points, while veteran Suzy Batkovic chimed in with 12 as Australia dominated from start to finish against an outmatched British side.

Australia led at every quarter as Jackson and fellow star Liz Cambage dominated a host side roared on by a partisan crowd.

The Opals face a tougher test next time out against Group B opponent France, which downed Brazil 73-58 in its opener.

Meanwhile, the US its Olympics winning streak to 34 games spanning 20 years with an 81-56 win against Croatia, but it is not a streak that matters to coach Geno Auriemma.

"Right now, the only winning streak that we're talking about is try to win one in a row, eight times. If we can get that streak, then we'll be really happy," Auriemma said about a stretch of victories that would clinch London gold.

"We're not going to think about what the other teams did in the Olympics.

"That's not who we are, that was somebody else."

Winners of the last four Olympic titles since their last Games loss in 1992, the US survived a scare on the opening day of competition from Croatia, which is competing in the Olympic women's tournament for the first time.

The Americans led by just three points at intermission and by 53-47 going into the final quarter before pulling away as they wore down the game Croats with their depth of talent.

"It's the 12 best players in the world," Croatian coach Stipe Bralic said.

"Maybe the best women's team in the world ever.

"We played very well for 30, 32 minutes. But it's a 40-minute game."

In other results, EuroBasket champion Russia closed with an 18-3 run to overtake Canada 58-53, Turkey beat Angola 72-50 and China claimed a 66-57 win over the Czech Republic, silver medallists at the last world championships.

ABC/Reuters

Tags: olympics-summer, sport, basketball, england, united-kingdom, australia

First posted July 29, 2012 09:24:44

View the original article here