Paris: Australia out-duelled Belgium down the stretch to win Paris Olympics women’s basketball bronze on Sunday, beating the European champions 85-81 for their first medal since they earned bronze in 2012.
The Opals sent 43-year-old star Lauren Jackson out on a high note with the fifth Olympic medal of her career.
She was on the teams that earned silver in 2000, 2004 and 2008 and was part of the bronze-medal squad in London.
In a back-and-forth battle, Australia denied Belgium a first Olympic medal in their second appearance in the Games.
The Cats suffered an agonising one-point loss to Japan in the quarter-finals three years ago in Tokyo and were battling for bronze after a semi-final overtime loss to France, who face the United States later Sunday in the gold medal match.
Ezi Magbegor scored 30 points and pulled down 13 rebounds for Australia while Julie Vanloo scored 26 points with 11 assists for Belgium.
Neither team could gain much of an advantage as they swapped the lead five times in the first half.
Sami Whitcomb sank a buzzer-beating three-pointer to put Australia up 37-36 at halftime.
The Opals pushed the lead to 10, 52-42, midway through the third but a 14-3 scoring run, capped by Vanloo’s three-point play, put Belgium back in front and the Cats led 61-60 heading into the fourth.
Australia responded and led by five with less than four minutes to play.
They were clinging to a three-point lead with 25 seconds remaining when Steph Talbot came up with a big block of Antonia Delaere’s three-point attempt and the Opals held on.
