REMEMBER Chris Goulding?
The 36-year-old shooting guard best remembered for his skirmish with Roger Pogoy that sparked the infamous Philippine-Australia brawl during the 2018 FIBA World Cup qualifiers made waves anew but for the right reason.
Goulding torched the net in the Boomers’ Asia Cup qualifiers duel with Thailand as they came away with a runaway 101-48 whipping of the host team at the Nimibutr Stadium in Bangkok in Thursday night.
Five years ago: All hell breaks loose in Gilas-Australia game
A three-time NBL champion, Goulding fired a record-setting nine three pointers in the 53-point massacre that gave the Boomers a perfect 3-0 record in Group A.
He finished the game with 27 points on 9-of-14 shooting from long range and 9-of-15 from the field overall.
The nine three-pointers are now a new Continental Cup qualifiers record since FIBA adopted the new qualification system in 2017.
Goulding eclipsed the previous mark of eight jointly held by AJ Angola of Poland, Pedro Bastos of Angola, and Robinson Opong of Uganda and surpassed the Asia Cup qualifiers mark of seven by Hsieh Ya-hsuan of Chinese Taipei.
Incidentally, Japan’s Yudai Nishida also hit seven 3s in the Akatsuki’s 93-75 rout of Mongolia also on Thursday night in Utsunomiya.
Goulding already had seven 3s at the break as the Boomers held a 50-31 lead. He then began the second half by hitting from long distance to tie the mark, and then claimed the record by nailing another one to start the fourth quarter.
That he shot the lights out at the Bangkok Stadium wasn’t a surprise.
He was the former NBL scoring champion in 2014, the same season he shot a career-high 50 points spiked by nine three-pointers while still playing for the Melbourne Tigers.
A former Grand Final MVP, Goulding reached 1,000 career three pointers in the 2022-23 season with the Melbourne United and the following year, hit 140 three pointers.
Until he was ejected for his role in the fracas between Gilas and the Boomers, Goulding was Australia’s leading scorer with 20 points in a game that ended in favor of the visitors, 89-53.
Despite being suspended by FIBA for one game in the aftermath of the brawl, Goulding received call-ups from Basketball Australia to play for the Boomers anew, eventually becoming part of the first-ever Aussie men’s basketball team to win a medal in the Olympics after bagging the bronze in the Tokyo Games.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
