The Australian 3-on-3 basketball team put on an impressive display as they opened their Youth Olympics campaign with a strong 18-9 victory against Chile at the Scape Youth Space on Singapore’s Orchard Road. 

Captain Olivia Bontempelli top scored with a game-high nine points as the Australians shut out the South Americans in the first half, taking a 15-0 lead to the break, before eventually scoring a nine point victory.

The Australians got off to a strong start as they drove hard to the ring early, scoring three consecutive three point plays to set up what was to be an unassailable lead.

Consistent pressure caught the Chile team out as the green and gold rarely allowed the South Americans to get a shot off before the 10 second shot clock expired in the opening minutes.

It wasn’t until 3:51 to go in the second half that the Chileans got onto the scoreboard, before they grew in confidence as they reduced the deficit to 9 by the time the final buzzer sounded.

With the 3-on-3 competition featuring a 10 second shot clock and five minute halves the game proved to be extremely fast paced, bringing an extra level of excitement to an already electric atmosphere.

 “The first match was really exciting, all the girls played well together for our first international match as a team,” said Australia’s Rosemary Fadjevic.

“It was really exciting out there, a lot of energy that kept us going.”

With the stands packed and the music at full volume, Scape Youth Space provides a vibrant setting for the Singapore 2010 basketball competition. 

 “I don’t think I have played in an atmosphere like this before,” said Mikhaela Donnelly.

 “There are never this many people around or this many people so excited to support us even though we are from a different country.”

The focus will now turn to tomorrows match against France as the team hopes to start their competition off with back to back victories. 

“We have training tonight and we will be getting up lots of shots because we weren’t dropping from the outside today,” said Donnelly.

“We will be putting up lots of shots so we can get our confidence back up.”    

Australia will take on France at 12:30pm on Monday 16 August in their second match at Scape Youth Space, Singapore. 

Matt Bartolo

AOC