Australia has made it two from two at the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup with an 87-71 win over Türkiye in Berlin.
It was an improved performance by the Opals after their opening 70-54 victory over Puerto Rico, leaving Sandy Brondello’s side set to progress to the knockout stages.
New captain Ezi Magbegor was instrumental in the second straight victory with 21 points on 10/14 shooting, leading the way with able support from Steph Talbot’s 17 points.
It was an impressive performance considering the unceremonious 2am wake-up call the teams received when a fire alarm went off at the team hotel.
Ezi Magbegor led the way with 21 points. (Supplied: FIBA)
The players and coaches all had to evacuate the hotel before going back inside the building about an hour later.
There was no fire, someone had pushed the emergency alarm button in the elevator, according to Brondello.
“That’s a what-if situation, isn’t it?” Brondello said.
“Now we have that in our toolbox. Never done that before.”
The interrupted sleep did not seem to hurt the Opals in the first game of the day that tipped at 11:30am local time.
“It was kind of crazy. Just kind of happened,” Australia forward Ezi Magbegor said.
“Knowing that it’s out of our control, so just getting back to sleep and waking up. No-one was going to feel sorry for us.”
Turkish coach Andrea Masson said he and his players got about three hours of sleep because of the alarm.
“They had a really bad night last night,” Masson said.
“That’s not an excuse, but that’s the reality.”
ABC/AP
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