This turned into a longer post than expected, so the first half is the setup for why this game was so interesting, then the rest is me breaking down the game itself.
Backstory
So the Women's tournament is setup like the Men's one, three pools of four, top two advance along with the two best third-place teams.
Pool A finished their games two days ago, and Canada finished third with a +7 differential (208 for, 201 against) in a weird group. Canada beat South Korea by 21 but lost to Serbia by 4 and Spain by 10 - South Korea lost to Serbia and Spain by 4 apiece, and Spain blew out Serbia.
Anyways, so that was the mark to beat for any other third place teams.
In Group B, Japan and France were both 1-1, but Japan finished with Nigeria (and won easily) and France finished with the US. France was +21 (thanks to a 25-point win over Nigeria), so they knew they just needed to either beat the US or lose by 13 of fewer points. They held on to lose by 11, in a game that had a bit of a weird final minute. France cut he lead to 89-82 with 1:27 left and after each team was fully content with working the shot clock. France even elected to not fast break after a steal with 48 seconds left down by 9, because they knew if they only allowed one more US possession, they would advance. The US made it 93-82 with 13 seconds left, France called timeout and then ran on the clock.
So that brings us to Australia vs. Puerto Rico
Start here if you already know the setup
Puerto Rico pulled up a miracle upset to make the Olympics, and promptly got destroyed by China (99-57) and Belgium (87-52). By far the weakest team in the Olympics, they would've needed an 80ish point win to advance. Meanwhile Australia, the #2 ranked team in the world, beat the US in exhibition play and came in as the overwhelming group favourites...and promptly lost to Belgium by 15 and China by 2. They needed to beat Puerto Rico by at least 24 to advance. When these two teams met during the Olympic qualifiers, Australia won by 26.
Then the game starts, and Puerto Rico opens with an 8-0 run and Australia ends the first quarter DOWN 24-22. In the second quarter, Australia takes the lead and goes on a bit of a run, but Puerto Rico fights back and it's 45-44 at the half. So now, Australia needs to win the second half by 23 points in order to advance.
2:25 into the third quarter, Jennifer O'Neill scored for PR to cut the lead to 49-48...they would not score again until a Tayra Melendez layup 5:03 later, but Australia had gone cold as well, now leading 57-50. However, Australia would finally turn it on, putting up an 11-2 spurt in the final 2 minutes of the quarter to win the quarter 23-8 and take a 16-point lead into the fourth quarter.
So as far as Australia is concerned, they're down by 8 going into the 4th, despite the 16-point lead. They stretch the lead to 20 a couple of times, but Puerto Rico sticks around, and an off-balance back-rim 3-pointer with 3:39 left (seriously, if you're Canadian go to cbc.ca and watch the video of this stupid shot, and if you're not Canadian find a spot to watch at least parts of this game) cuts it to 83-67, and Australia looks dejected.
They go back and forth, Australia hits a couple free throws, PR makes a layup, but you basically have a team up by 16-20 playing like they're down 10, pressing, doing everything they can to score. A PR turnover leads to a Cayla George 3 to put Australia up by 22 with 1:40 left.
PR breaks the press but blows the layup, and in doing so two of their players collide and Australia basically gets a 5-on-3 break, which leads to a layup. Australia up 24, 1:24 left, and at that moment they're in, and Canada's out. Out of the timeout, Australia presses (which surprises me a little, but PR did have trouble breaking it), PR gets a terrible shot off late in the shot clock, Australia burns clock, misses, gets their own rebound, burns more clock, then makes an and-1 (missing the free throw).
So it's a 95-69 game with 28 seconds left, both teams are just going to play it out, right? Nope. Puerto Rico pushes for a quick layup (that was blocked, but definitely looked like a foul, maybe the refs burying the whistle not realizing the circumstances?) and Puerto Rico pressures Australia and eventually fouls intentionally...down 26...with 8 seconds left.
Puerto Rico went into full "screw you" mode and decided to do everything they could to prevent Australia from advancing. Australia hit one of two, Puerto Rico pushed it up the court and got a decent look at a 3 that just rimmed out, and Australia advances.
Now even if that final 3 had gone in, Australia still would have advanced at +7 because of the points scored tiebreaker, and I realize I just wrote like a thousand words on a women's basketball game between Australia and Puerto Rico, but I just found it so intriguing to watch. It's not every day a 20-point game is played with that level of intensity down the stretch (although it does suck that Canada was put out, and I think the "best 3rd" rule is dumb as hell with some of the huge talent gaps).
tl;dr: Australia had to win their final game by 24 to advance, they were only up 1 at the half, ended up winning by 27 in a wild fourth quarter.
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