Article
31 July 2012

Javi Vázquez
Spain clocked up their second victory of the Olympic Games by beating Australia 70-82. Rudy Fernández, with 17 points, led the victory, together with Pau Gasol. Felipe Reyes, with 7 points and 12 rebounds, and Sergio Llull with 8 points, finished this great performance of the national team. Also, Sergio Rodríguez's performance in the second quarter was key to Spain taking control of the game.
The Spain team came out in the first quarter ready to beat Australia, but they were unlucky with their three-pointer attempts and the good fast breaks by the Australians meant they were behind on the scoreboard. At the beginning, having Sergio Llull and Rudy Fernández wasn't enough to make up ground and come out on top on the scoreboard, so when Sergio Rodríguez came on, the Spaniards managed to dominate the game again, and ultimately the scoreboard. Two three-pointers from Llull were enough to give Scariolo's team the upper hand and so the Spaniards reached half-time on top (32-37).
The second half began just as the first had ended. Two three-point shots from Rudy and Pau Gasol gave Spain the lead with 13 more points on the scoreboard (32-45). Rudy finished the second quarter with a bump on the head and had to have three stitches, but this didn't stop him from carrying on playing well. Sergio Llull was very quick in the transitions and Pau Gasol began to make up for the missed attempts at the beginning of the game. This, together with the strong defence and the rebounds caught by Spain, was the key to Spain's increase the scoreboard (42-63) with the last quarter still to go. The game was wrapped up with a display of shots courtesy of Ibaka. Spain, with the game going its way, decided to secure their advantage. The next game will be on Thursday against Great Britain at 21:00.