BASKETBALL WORLD CUP: Australia inch closer to quarters

NANJING, China: Veteran Andrew Bogut ran the gauntlet once more at the Basketball World Cup in China as Australia planted one foot in the quarter-finals with an 82-76 victory over the Dominican Republic on Saturday.

The 34-year-old, a key member of the Golden State Warriors’ National Basketball Association championship-winning roster in 2015, has been heckled and jeered throughout Australia’s successful campaign by Chinese fans angry with a barbed comment about national swimming hero Sun Yang.

There was more of the same in Nanjing, but centre Bogut is relishing it and has not been afraid to fan the flames with sarcastic tweets referring to his “Chinese fans”.

Bogut had the last laugh once more as the Boomers made it four wins out of four to close on a spot in the last eight.

But the Australians were pushed all the way by the Dominicans, who have defied expectations despite being the joint-shortest team at the 32-nation tournament.

Patty Mills, the San Antonio Spurs guard who has called this Australian team the country’s best ever, was once more central to the win, leading the scoring with 19 points. He also had nine assists.

Australia are hoping to finally break their unwanted record of never getting beyond the quarter-finals in 11 previous World Cup appearances.

Bogut, who had eight points and six assists, has been targeted in China after he tweeted in July: “Swimmers who medal vs Sun Yang should break the podiums with hammers.”

The tweet, which garnered thousands of interactions, was a cheeky reference to China’s triple Olympic champion missing a doping test after a vial of his blood was smashed with a hammer.

Meanwhile, Poland are shock quarter-finalists at the World Cup but the team have even grander ambitions — proving once and for all that theirs is a basketball country.

Under their well-travelled American coach Mike Taylor, the Poles are one of the stories of the tournament in China, or “the new kids on the block” as he put it. They are back at the World Cup after a 52-year hiatus but are doing much more than merely making up the numbers.

Poland defeated the hosts in overtime in a cauldron-like atmosphere in Beijing in the first round and on Friday made it a scarcely believable four wins in a row with the scalp of old foe Russia.

Argentina’s victory over Venezuela hours later confirmed Poland’s unlikely place in the last eight.

“It means everything,” said Taylor, 47, whose varied coaching career has spanned NBA development teams, posts in Britain and Germany, and a position with the Czech team.

“The country can take self-confidence from the performance of these players. We can compete, we can do it,” Taylor said after Poland dismissed Russia 79-74 thanks to a fourth-quarter blast.

“We hope these guys can inspire the next generation.”

Name-checking the likes of Serbia, who look easily good enough to topple World Cup holders the United States, Taylor said that there was “tremendous competition” in Europe.

“Other teams have had more achievements and success,” he said. “What we are trying to do is to establish that Poland can do it too.”

Poland’s last appearance in the Basketball World Cup was in 1967 in Uruguay, where they finished fifth.