It was a shootout here at the Sitno Sporthal Arena in Poland, as we battled #9 Australia in a must win game. Before the game, Australian star center Rudolph Radford
(5888983) was trash talking with Jairo, and said that Jairo's head looks like a "sucked mango." That was all the motivation Jairo needed as he came out guns blazing, hitting 4-4 shots and grabbing 6 rebounds early in the 1st quarter. But when Radford called Jairo a "bloody wombat" tempers started flaring and Jairo flagrant fouled him twice and was ejected after only 10 minutes of play.
Thanks to Jairo's first quarter play, we were up 36-24 at the end of the quarter, but now playing without out star center, the lead began to deteriorate in the 2nd quarter. Radford and PF Liang Huaizheng
(9469661) punished our depleted frontcourt, combining for 54 points and 25 rebounds.
At halftime namssor reminded the team that today is our day, and that America expects greatness from their National Team on this day. We then replayed Rambo's speech from our semifinal game vs Argentina last season, that he ripped from the movie Independence Day. Since it was July 4th, the speech actually made some sense this time, and the players responded.
Despite Australia's dominance inside, they could not stop our world class guards. Team USA welcomed back Ricardo Madrid, who scored 17 points in 23 minutes after a long absence due to poor game shape from eating Polish Taco Bell. Martin Medrano, fresh off of hitting the game winner vs Uruguay, scored 23 points in 24 minutes of work, hitting 10 of 14 shots. In all 6 guards scored in double figures, and we came away with a solid 129-116 victory.
This win puts us at 4-2 with 1 game remaining in the 2nd round of the Worlds. Unfortunately, we failed to clinch a semifinal berth, as Spain stayed within striking distance with a convincing win over Uruguay. Now we must attempt to defeat defending Worlds Champion #1 Chile in order to potentially avoid becoming the first 4 win team in Worlds history to fail to reach the semifinal.