Ingles And Exum Win Bronze With Big Second Half Performances
Aug 7, 2021, 7:19 AM | Updated: 7:36 am
Joe Ingles and Matisse Thybulle celebrating the Australian National Team's Bronze Medal (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
(Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Joe Ingles made history as he helped lead the Australian Men’s National Team to their first bronze medal at the Olympic games.
Ingles scored 16 points, grabbed nine rebounds, and handed out four assists while Brooklyn Nets guard Patty Mills scored a game-high 42 points on 15-31 shooting to hand the Boomers the 107-93 victory over Slovenia.
Australia had appeared in 14 Olympic games prior to Tokyo and had never finished better than fourth in the tournament. The Boomers came up just short at the 2016 games in Rio falling to Spain 89-88 in the bronze medal game.
🥉 Bronze medal for Joe & the Boomers! 🥉
On ya, @JoeIngles7! pic.twitter.com/ORlitmEdgF
— utahjazz (@utahjazz) August 7, 2021
Ingles started the game scoring the first four points for Australia but went cold for the remainder of the first half. However, after taking an eight-point lead into the break, Ingles found his stroke and connected on three crucial three-pointers in the third quarter to give Australia a 78-67 lead after 30 minutes.
Former Jazz guard Dante Exum had the best stretch of his basketball career at the most crucial moment. The former lottery pick scored all 12 of his points in the fourth quarter and assisted on an Ingles three to help Australia fend off a late Slovenia run.
Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic scored 22 points, had eight rebounds, and seven assists, but shot just 7-20 from the floor and had eight turnovers in the loss. The guard was playing with tape on his wrist after running into the plexiglass television broadest booth during Slovenia’s loss to France in the semifinals.
BREAKING: 🥇🏀👀
📰: https://t.co/fSDEtB1nNs#KSLOlympics #TokyoOlympics
📷: Getty Images pic.twitter.com/2SW69h37fr— KSL Sports (@kslsports) August 7, 2021
With the win, Ingles became just the sixth active Jazz player to take home an Olympic medal and only the second player to do so on a team other than Team USA, joining Rudy Gobert who took home the silver medal late Friday night.
John Stockton, Karl Malone, Carlos Boozer, and Deron Williams also won medals while representing the Jazz for Team USA.
