China continued their domination at home to beat Australia 95-90 on Sunday night and level their four-game basketball series.
The Boomers continually fell foul of the local referees in the final match at Liyang Tianmuhu Arena in Jiangsu province, giving up 30 of 48 free throws to their opponents.
Poor turnovers and failure to find consistant passages of play also hurt the Australians, who led 21-17 at the end of the first term.
A run of free throws quickly gave China a five-point advantage heaidng into the main break, a buffer Andrej Lemanis' men reduced to just one by three-quarter time.
Despite efforts from Brock Motum and Cameron Gliddon, the Boomers struggled to string enough baskets together in the final stanza to overcome the hosts.
Italy-based Queenslander Motum capped off a successful series with 19 points, including an impressive one-hand dunk in the closing minutes of the last quarter that no doubt boosted his chances of a making the national squad for the World Cup in Spain later this year.
Luke Nevill added 14 points, while Ben Madgen had 10.
Teenage Boomer Jack McVeigh made his international senior debut in the loss.
Australia won the opening two matches of the series at home, before dropping their two away fixtures to end it at 2-2.
Share
