AUSTRALIA went through 40 minutes of fiercely fought basketball before beating China, 90-89, on Monday morning and winning a third successive Fiba Asia Cup title at the King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah.
The Boomers trailed by as many as 15 points in the first half and didn't take the lead for good until there was only 1:03 left in the game clock after William Hickey scored off an offensive rebound after a teammate's airball.
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Still the world's No. 7 ranked team didn't get away with the win until China hotshot Hu Mingxuan missed a three-pointer just before the final buzzer.
Xavier Cooks came away with 30 points while Jaylin Galloway added 23 points studded with six treys for the Boomers, who kept their perfect record since the Asia and Oceania regions were merged into one competition by Fiba.
Another Oceania powerhouse, New Zealand, lost to Iran, 79-73, in the battle for third place.
The game marked the closest the Aussies had come to losing in the Asia Cup, and they could've been in more serious trouble had Galloway not hit two big three-pointers to keep the game close in the endgame.
Hu Mingxuan led the way with 26 points behind a 5-of-7 clip from three-point distance while Hu Jinqui added 20 for China, which played in the finals for the first time since beating Gilas Pilipinas for the title in 2015 in Changsha.
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