Dominant Australian Boomers crush Scotland to book spot in gold medal game

AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” was an appropriate song to be played inside the Commonwealth Games basketball stadium at halftime as Australia booked its place in the gold medal game, ending the fairytale run of the hoop Bravehearts from Scotland.

Jesse Wagstaff lead the Australian scoring against Scotland. Picture: Getty Images

IN the build-up to today’s men’s basketball semi-final, Scotland coach Rob Beveridge described the match-up with Australia as a “David and Goliath” situation.

He was right.

Except Goliath mercilessly stomped all over David at the Gold Coast Convention Centre.

Australia clinically and emphatically stormed their way to a 103-46 thrashing of Scotland to be the first team through to tomorrow’s gold medal match at the Commonwealth Games.

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Jesse Wagstaff lead the Australian scoring against Scotland. Picture: Getty Images

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AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” was an appropriate song to be played inside the stadium at halftime as the Boomers went bang and crash to end the fairytale run of the basketball Bravehearts.

The highly regarded Beveridge — the Boomers assistant coach at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and Illawarra Hawks mentor — had worked wonders to get Scotland into the semi-finals with four wins from three pool games and a quarter-final triumph over Nigeria.

Scotland beat England for the first time since 1977 in a pool game in Townsville to become national heroes and their pride and passion produced some wonderful scenes.

It was the genuine feel-good story across the men’s and women’s basketball competitions that have featured one-sided contest after one-sided contest.

But the plucky Scots were not feeling too warm and fuzzy in the first quarter when reality bit and bit hard.

Mitch Norton helped Australian put the Scots to the sword. Picture: Getty Images

The astute Beveridge also conceded pre-match that the Boomers were “light-years” in front of Scotland in terms of talent.

He was right again.

With Daniel Kickert on fire early with eight of Australia’s first 14 points, the Boomers bounded to a 20-4 first-quarter lead with Scotland connecting on just two of 15 field goal attempts.

Australia went on an 11-2 tear to start the second term before Scotland settled and started hitting some shots.

But it was far too little, far too late as the Boomers quelled the brief Scottish uprising and took a 48-22 buffer into at halftime.

The Boomers went on a 30-2 run after the main break as Scotland’s defence broke down while their offence also collapsed under the weight of mounting turnovers to trail by 51 points at three-quarter time.

Five Boomers finished in double figures with Jesse Wagstaff (17 points), Chris Goulding (15 points), Jason Cadee (14 points), Angus Brandt 14 points) and Kickert (12 points) led the way in the scoring for Australia.

Originally published as Dominant Australian Boomers crush Scotland to book spot in gold medal game