BASKETBALL: The Australian women's basketball team have returned from extensive trips of Japan and Europe and will head back into camp in Canberra from Thursday June 23-Tuesday June 28 as August draws closer.
The camp squad is relatively unchanged from the team that toured Europe, with only Bec Allen unavailable while Sara Blicavs and Abby Bishop return from injury and WNBA commitments respectively.
Australia finished their Japan and European tours with an 8-3 record, defeating Japan three times, Argentina, Italy, Belgium, Cameroon, and China with their three losses coming against top ten ranked countries in Spain, Canada and France.
"The tours [were] positive in respect to exposing areas we need to improve and what we do well,” said Opals head coach Brendan Joyce.
“The tours add to our preparation for August by giving the coaching staff a chance to trial the players and different combinations and test them in various roles as well as giving the players themselves some international experience.”
One final international tour is scheduled for the Opals before they reach Brazil, when they fly to the USA from July 28-August 1 once the official team is announced to play a warm-up tour against Canada, France and the USA.
That clash against USA will be competed at Madison Square Garden, the first time the Opals will play at the famous venue.
In the more immediate future, Australia will head into their third camp on home soil since preparations began back in March.
Their camp aims will be to continue to build the team cohesion and chemistry they want to replicate from the 2014 World Championships Bronze Medal performance but also with a focus of improvement and a focus on opponents now known for the group stage for the Olympic campaign.
Australia (ranked second in the world) will begin the tournament with a game against Brazil (ranked seventh) on Sunday August 7 at 6.30am AEST.
They will then face Turkey (ranked equal-tenth) at 6.30am on August 8 with a day’s rest being earned before they play France (ranked fourth) on August 10 at 1.15am.
Their final two games of the group stage come against Japan (ranked 16th) on August 12 at 6.45am before clashing with Belarus (ranked equal-tenth) at 1.15am on August 14.
The 2016 Australian Camp 3 Squad:
Suzy Batkovic
Abby Bishop
Sara Blicavs
Natalie Burton
Elizabeth Cambage
Katie-Rae Ebzery
Cayla George
Laura Hodges
Rachel Jarry
Tessa Lavey
Tess Madgen
Leilani Mitchell
Stephanie Talbot
Marianna Tolo
Basketball Australia
