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Opals beat Venezuela in Rio

The Opals have thrashed Venezuela 104-24 in the women's basketball Olympic test event in Rio.

Suzy Batkovic of the Opals
The Opals have thrashed Venezuela 104-24 in the women's basketball Olympic test event in Rio. (AAP)

The Australian women's basketball team have won their second game in as many nights at the Olympic test event in Brazil, defeating an inexperienced Venezuela 104-24.

Both Cayla Francis (15 points, 14 rebounds) and Nat Burton (15 and 13) recorded double-doubles while Abby Bishop (13 and eight) and Suzy Batkovic (nine and 10) fell just short.

Venezuela jumped out to an early four-point lead but evened things up at 8-8 midway through the first quarter before going on a scoring rampage.

The Opals asserted their dominance by finishing the term on a 19-0 run which extended to a 45-3 run by halftime.

"They are a pretty young team and not very big," coach Brendan Joyce said.

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"They can be tough games to play sometimes as you can switch off and go up and down but I thought we did well in playing the right way both offensively and defensively."

Joyce was able to tinker with his line-ups - as he did against Argentina on Saturday night - and give every available player court time.

Joyce said his team was guilty of complacency in the early going but was happy with the way they turned things around.

"We saw that Brazil had beaten them by 71 points ... the focus did improve though and even the players I subbed out came back and played better," he said.

Australia's final game of the test event on Monday (AEDT) comes against the host nation Brazil, in what is expected to be a much tighter game.


2 min read

Published

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Source: AAP



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