Wagstaff Sparks Aussie Fightback to Set Up Chance at Gold

He has won six championships in a remarkable 416-game NBL career, but Jesse Wagstaff played hero for Australia on Monday night leading his country to a fightback semi-final win to book a spot in the gold medal match at the Commonwealth Games.

The 3x3 basketball tournament is taking place at the Commonwealth Games for the first time in Birmingham with Australia now a chance to win the first men's gold medal.

The Australian team of Adelaide 36ers superstar Daniel Johnson, Perth Wildcats captain Wagstaff, four-time NBL championship winner Greg Hire and 3x3 gun Tom Wright are one win away from winning gold.

Australia's Commonwealth Games campaign began on Saturday night with their first two Pool B match ups which saw them record 21-6 and 21-11 wins against Trinidad and Tobago, and New Zealand respectively.

The pool phase wrapped up on Sunday with a 17-12 loss to England which meant Australia had to go through a quarter-final first on Monday night in Birmingham to reach the semis.

That saw a match up with Kenya which Australia went on to win 20-15. That set up a semi-final battle with Scotland who the 5x5 team beat at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast when they were coached by Rob Beveridge.

Australia went on to win that semi-final 20-15 to advance to the gold medal match on Tuesday night against England, who scraped through 13-12 against Canada to close proceedings on Monday evening.

Following five games so far at the Commonwealth Games, Johnson has been the star of the tournament scoring 8.2 points a game while shooting 29/42 overall to go with 15 rebounds.

Wagstaff is averaging 5.6 points a game having collected 23 rebounds with Wright contributing 4.2 points a game and 13 rebounds while dishing out nine assists with Hire shaking off injury for seven rebounds and three assists in his four appearances.

Monday night's action got underway with Australia taking on Kenya in the quarter finals and it was the Kenyans who started strongly with the first four points of the contest with two shots from deep.

Australia was able to respond with the next four points with the first three of those courtesy of Wright before Johnson joined in.

Kenya had certainly come to play, though, and they soon opened up a three-point advantage once more heading towards the halfway mark of the 10 minutes. That lead got out to four and Australia had to dig deep to avoid missing the medal playoffs altogether.

Wright hit his biggest shot of the tournament from long-range to make it a one-point margin, before he hit a free-throw to put Australia on top but still, Kenya wouldn’t be denied and went back up 13-11 with three minutes to play.

Wright continued his biggest game of the tournament to bring scores back level, Wagstaff then put Australia on top and they managed to dominate the last two minutes thanks to Wagstaff and Johnson to win 20-15.

Wright finished the game with eight points on a perfect 5/5 shooting from inside the arc for Australia with Johnson adding seven points and five rebounds, and Wagstaff five points and eight boards with Hire able to play an important 51 seconds.

George Omondi scored six points for Kenya, Larry Shavanga four and Faheem Juma four.

That set up a tantalising semi-final match up with a spot in the gold medal match on the line between Scotland and Australia.

The job became all that more challenging for Australia with Scotland racing out to a 5-1 lead before Johnson knocked down a two-pointer to cut the deficit in half.

Wagstaff then drained back-to-back one-pointers to bring scores level and Johnson scored two more of his own for Australia to have scored six straight to assume the 7-5 edge.

Wagstaff then continued the roll he was on to put Australia's lead out to 11-8 and then Wright connected from beyond the arc to make the advantage 13-10. Johnson hit from deep too to make it 15-12, and eventually a pair of free-throws saw Australia end up winning 20-15 as time expired.

Australia booked the spot in the gold medal match with Wagstaff having his standout game of the tournament with nine points on the back shooting 7/10 from the field to go with seven rebounds.

Johnson finished with six points, Tom Wright five and Hire played a crucial minute and-a-half.

Kyle Jimenez proved a menace for Australia scoring 11 points for Scotland.

Meanwhile, the Australian women's 3x3 team will be playing for bronze after losing their semi-final match up with England 21-15 on Monday night.

Despite eight points from Lauren Mansfield and three each from Ally Wilson and Marena Whittle, Australia couldn’t keep their undefeated run going against the host nation.

They will now take on New Zealand on Tuesday night with a bronze medal on the line while England plays Canada for gold.

And in the wheelchair competitions, the Australian men will play for gold after a thrilling 12-11 semi-final victory against England on the back of a stunning long-range bomb in overtime to clinch the win from Lachlin Dalton.

Despite falling down by four points, Australia fought back to win with Jake Kavanagh scoring four points, Luke Pople four and Dalton three.

They will now take on Canada for the gold medal on Tuesday night in Birmingham.

The women also booked in a place in the gold medal match by beating England 8-6 in a hard fought semi-final match up on Monday.

Amber Merritt scored another four points for Australia, Ella Sabljak two and Georgia Inglis 10 ahead of them now taking on Canada for gold.