The World Championships are pumping along just nicely, with the second day of action now under way.
Day one in Kayseri saw a mixed bag of results. Firstly the Aussies gave their fans near heart-attacks with their last gasp win over lowly-ranked Jordan. Andrew Vlahov was in the stands to cheer the Boomers on. Defence was the main deficiency for the Aussies as they let the Jordanians waltz in for numerous uncontested baskets. The only Aussie performances of note came from David Andersen and Aleks Maric. In fact, Maric’s performance was so dominant that I had German girls in my hotel asking what NBA team he played for. He was the cog inside that the boomers definitely needed with Andrew Bogut’s absence. Meanwhile, Patty Mills didn’t show enough on either end to justify my usual man-love for him.
Next up we saw Serbia tear African champions Angola to pieces. They were simply too big for Angola and came away as 50 point winners.
The marquee matchup of the day saw an always tough Argentina take on a youthful Germany. The crowd participation in this one was integral, as the Argies showed off their chants against the Deutsch drummers. The game was tight during the first half, with Germany leading marginally most of the way, until Argentina pulled away in the third. Germany took advantage of their opponents’ seemingly napping in the fourth to pull thee game right back to level, behind some stellar play by guards Steffen Hamann and Demond Greene. However the experienced Argentinians managed to hold out for a tight victory.
Day two sees Australia attempt to withstand the might of Argentina, a potential nail-biter between Germany and Serbia and another potential tight one between Angola and Jordan.
Whilst updates to A Stern Warning usually have to wait til I return to my hotel at night, twitter updates @ASternWarning come thick and fast during the games, so make sure following…
