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Under fire Boomers, and ex-Breakers, coach Andrej Lemanis has been vigorously defended by his national association after claims the Australians ''threw'' their final pool game at basketball's World Cup here.

International body Fiba have announced they are investigating Australia's 91-83 Group D defeat to Angola in Gran Canaria which saw them drop to third in the pool.

With Lemanis resting two key starters (New Zealand-born centre Aron Baynes and veteran lefty Joe Ingles) for the game, and barely playing two others (Matthew Dellavedova and David Andersen), speculation was rife in the basketball community that the Boomers had ''tanked'' in order to gain a preferred knockout draw.

They also let a 15-point lead slip away.

Slovenia's NBA star Goran Dragic took to Twitter to vent his frustrations over the manner of the defeat: ''Basketball is a beautiful sport, there is no room for fixing the game like today Australia vs Angola! FIBA should do something about that.''

The result saw the Boomers meet Turkey in the opening round of 16 knockout game in Barcelona, and would also have seen them avoid the hot favourite USA team until the semifinals.

However, if that was their strategy, it backfired badly when the Boomers were stunned 65-64 by Turkey in the opening knockout game and exited the tournament.

Lemanis, who coached the Breakers to a championship threepeat in the Australian NBL, denied the Boomers threw the game and today Basketball Australia came to his defence.

''BA categorically rejects any suggestion that the Australian Boomers were a party to contriving the result of the ... game between Australia and Angola,'' they said via a media release..

''The Boomers went into the game against Angola to win - plain and simple.

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Basketball Australia to defend 'tanking' claims

DAYTON, Ohio -- A 17-year-old Ohio boy convicted on charges of attacking and robbing two men as part of the so-called "knockout game" has been sentenced to four years in prison.

The former Stivers High School student was convicted as an adult of two counts of robbery last month, prosecutors in southwest Ohio's Montgomery County said. He and two other teens were charged in attacks on homeless men in Dayton last spring.

The defendants attacked the victims with the intention of knocking them out with a single punch, prosecutors said. The two other suspects, ages 14 and 15, also are charged with robbery.

Police were alerted when a teacher at the school saw a video of the attack on a student's cellphone.

A message left with the boy's attorney wasn't immediately returned.

Over the past year, police across the country have investigated several cases of attacks that were oart ofa violent game called "knockout," where the object is to target unsuspecting pedestrians with the intention of knocking them out cold with one punch.

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'Knockout game' punch during robbery by Ohio boy, 17, lands him in prison for four years

Couples fight back to knockout game

By: earl brown

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Couples fight back to knockout game - Video

Two in-form NBA studs, an imposing 5-1 pool record, the No 4 world ranking and some lights-out shooting percentages here in Spain. The Tall Blacks have the lethal Lithuanians right where they want them.

There's a theory doing the rounds ahead of tomorrow morning's (NZ time) round of 16 knockout game at the basketball World Cup that playing a team of Lithuania's calibre will bring the best out in Nenad Vucinic's New Zealand side.

It had better do, for the Tall Blacks need to find a level that, frankly, they managed only in patches during their five Group C games in Bilbao where they finished 2-3 to sneak into the knockout round as fourth qualifier.

The New Zealanders played a quality half and a-bit against the Turks, had it going for a similar period against the Finns and were pretty solid for the whole 40 in their best performance of the tournament, a 73-61 victory over the Ukraine.

But they had a shocker against the Dominican Republic, were always playing for pride alone against the US and had a bad case of the wobbles in the finishing straight against both Turkey and Finland.

The normally reliable Kirk Penney is yet to find anything resembling his best form - he's shooting 32 per cent from the floor and just 27 from beyond the arc - and his average of 11.8 points a game is under half of his stellar effort from four years ago. You could say he's due.

Corey Webster has also been a little up and down - 38 per cent shooting and 30 from deep for 11.2 a game - and a hobbled Tom Abercrombie (7.6 points and 3.8 rebounds) has gone nowhere near to making the same impact as he did in Turkey four years ago.

For all that, here the Tall Blacks are in the top 16 for the fourth straight global tournament, and in with a sniff of the top eight if they can dig deep and find the consistency that's eluded them thus far.

You wouldn't put it past them. They went toe to toe with a succession of European heavyweights - Lithuania included -before this tournament, and in their pool opener it was only a freakish series of events that let world No 7 Turkey off the hook.

The top teams do tend to bring out the best in this band of Kiwi scrappers, and there's no doubt their style is a little unsettling. Coach after coach through pool play talked about how difficult it is to defend the motion offence when it's on point and dragging opposing big men away from hoop protection.

Read more from the original source:
Confident Tall Blacks have spring in their step

Two in-form NBA studs, an imposing 5-1 pool record, the No 4 world ranking and some lights-out shooting percentages here in Spain. The Tall Blacks have the lethal Lithuanians right where they want them.

There's a theory doing the rounds ahead of tomorrow morning's (NZ time) round of 16 knockout game at the basketball World Cup that playing a team of Lithuania's calibre will bring the best out in Nenad Vucinic's New Zealand side.

It had better do, for the Tall Blacks need to find a level that, frankly, they managed only in patches during their five Group C games in Bilbao where they finished 2-3 to sneak into the knockout round as fourth qualifier.

The New Zealanders played a quality half and a-bit against the Turks, had it going for a similar period against the Finns and were pretty solid for the whole 40 in their best performance of the tournament, a 73-61 victory over the Ukraine.

But they had a shocker against the Dominican Republic, were always playing for pride alone against the US and had a bad case of the wobbles in the finishing straight against both Turkey and Finland.

The normally reliable Kirk Penney is yet to find anything resembling his best form - he's shooting 32 per cent from the floor and just 27 from beyond the arc - and his average of 11.8 points a game is under half of his stellar effort from four years ago. You could say he's due.

Corey Webster has also been a little up and down - 38 per cent shooting and 30 from deep for 11.2 a game - and a hobbled Tom Abercrombie (7.6 points and 3.8 rebounds) has gone nowhere near to making the same impact as he did in Turkey four years ago.

For all that, here the Tall Blacks are in the top 16 for the fourth straight global tournament, and in with a sniff of the top eight if they can dig deep and find the consistency that's eluded them thus far.

You wouldn't put it past them. They went toe to toe with a succession of European heavyweights - Lithuania included -before this tournament, and in their pool opener it was only a freakish series of events that let world No 7 Turkey off the hook.

The top teams do tend to bring out the best in this band of Kiwi scrappers, and there's no doubt their style is a little unsettling. Coach after coach through pool play talked about how difficult it is to defend the motion offence when it's on point and dragging opposing big men away from hoop protection.

Read more from the original source:
Tall Blacks have spring in their step