Dubai: Australian coach Mark Watkins admitted going down to a superior opponent and then predicted Australia will be the team to beat at the next edition of the Fiba U-17 World Championship in 2016.
Australia had the upper hand over defending two-time champions USA early in the final of the 2014 Fiba U17 World Championship, but the Americans showed enough resilience to eke out a narrow seven-point win and complete a hat-trick at the Hamdan Sports Complex late on Saturday.
But Watkins had nothing but praise for his young lads as they fought till the very end in search of an elusive win after two meetings between the teams in as many finals. They had met in the finale in 2012 with the USA walking away with a 95-62 result.
This time it was much closer with the final score reading 99-92 giving Watkins enough hope for the future.
“To push a team like the USA so close is a good feat. I’m disappointed we did not win gold, but I am proud to win silver. We’ve got a great junior system going in basketball and hopefully we will be able to do enough to have these youngsters perform at the senior level,” Watkins hoped.
Point guard Dejan Vasiljevic — later chosen on the “Dream Team of the Tournament” — topscored with 29 points while captain Tom Wilson chipped in with 23 as Australia fought well. But with American skipper Malik Newman — named MVP of the competition — firing on with 21 points, it was a tough call for the Aussies.
“We showed some ticker [heart] till the end. This is the Australian fighting spirit and we got there ... well, nearly,” he added.
