The Australian men's basketball team have clinched the sweep in the three-game series against Argentina, taking game three by 18 points, 90-72.

In a physical win in front of 5000 fans at the Dome in Adelaide, Argentina played the first quarter like that going home without a win wasn’t an option.

Finding mid-range jumpshots aplenty, Argentina won only their second quarter of the series, but most importantly, the first of game three, taking a handy five-point lead into the huddle.

It was Argentinian guard Nicolas Romano who was hurting the Boomers. He finished the quarter with 11 points.

Right from the outset though, Patty Mills showed signs that he had come to play, lighting up a pair of threes and taking a seat with three minutes on the clock with eight points to his name.

He wouldn’t slow down from there. Mills erupted in the second term, turning defenders Nicolas Dos Santos and Jonatan Triese up the floor, slashing to the bucket and lighting it up from down town.

The Boomers stepped things up immediately in the second term, scoring the first six points of the quarter to take a one-point advantage early.

Argentina answered through Romano again, who brought his numbers up to 14. But he wouldn’t score again for the quarter as Argentina’s offense began to dry up.

They were finding it hard to score in traffic, as Patty started to lift. A 13-point quarter had him going into the change rooms at the half with 21, with Argentina lucky to still be within eight points.

The third was all Australia — they turned defense into offense and ran the break well, they got stops at the other end of the floor.

Patty Mills and Adam Gibson chased the ball as Luke Nevill, Alex Loughton and Nathan Jawai made inside buckets hard to come by.

Argentina started to misfire from range, however it wasn’t showing on the scoreboard. The Argentinians were able to keep things within 12, until a break and bucket on the buzzer by Nevill had the Boomers out to 15 at the final change.

But the Argentinians kept coming — a big three from Schattmann had things back to 10 as the South Americans refused to sit down. A bucket and a foul for Pablo Orlietti and then a long three from Nicolas De Los Santos had things back to nine and getting interesting.

De Los Santos took exception to the physical defense from Mills but the Boomers kept their cool. Mills continued to be a nuisance in defense and offense, sending away on-ball picks, opting to jab, poke, and cross over his defenders finishing with a few tasty finger rolls.

When Sebastian Vega missed three free throws with two minutes to play, the lead was insurmountable.

Fittingly, Mills would ice the game with a long-range triple, finishing with 32 points and giving the Boomers an 18-point win.

“The start of the game was disappointing. I think the biggest disappointment was that at times I felt like we were being out-physicalled,” said head coach Brett Brown.

“They were difficult to play because they played five guards and I didn’t want us to come and go five guards against them. We persevered with out bigs and we got punished for it.

“And I particularly, offensively, didn’t like our 21 turnovers. We had nine in the fourth period in game two, we had 21 for the game here. I thought we were sloppy, we were reckless with the ball and you can’t do that internationally.”

Brown will go away and reflect on the past 11 days and think about the next phase.

“I learned a lot about the structure I’m trying to play these guys in, I learned a lot about the guys that are playing the structure… I just think it was a fantastic exercise to have these guys for eleven days and just play basketball.”

AUSTRALIAN BOOMERS 90 (P Mills 32, B Newley 14, A Loughton 9, S Markovic 9) def ARGENTINA 72 (N Romano 19, N De Los Santos 13, F Aguerre 10) At Brett Maher Court, The Dome, Adelaide

Basketball Australia