Matthew Dellavedova and Australia bounced back after a loss to the United States on Wednesday, with a dominating 93-68 win over China in the preliminary round of the Olympic men’s basketball tournament Friday afternoon. With the win, the Boomers have assured themselves of a top four finish in Group A, clinching a spot in the quarterfinals of the tournament, which will begin Wednesday.
The first half of Friday’s game went back-and-forth until Australia ended the second quarter on a 13-5 run to take a 44-34 lead at the break. From there, the Boomers never looked back, extending their lead throughout the second half to finish with a 25-point win. Australia dominated the paint, outrebounding China 35-21 and outscoring them 50-28.
Delly had another solid game for Australia, finishing with eight assists, six points and a plus/minus of eight. He was once again effective shooting the ball, going 3-for-4 overall, increasing his tournament totals to 17-for-26 (65.4 percent) over the course of four games.
Cameron Bairstow led the Boomers in scoring with 17 points, while former Milwaukee Buck Yi Jianlian tallied a game-high 20 points for China.
Before the quarterfinals begin Wednesday, Australia has one final preliminary game on Sunday against Venezuela at 5 p.m.
