Patrick served as an assistant for the Boomers, Australia takes home the Gold Medal in the FIBA event.
BATON ROUGE â€" For LSU Basketball’s associate head coach David Patrick, it was a successful trip to serve as assistant coach as the Australia Boomers won the Gold Medal in the FIBA Asia Cup for a third straight time with a nail-biting 90-89 win over the People’s Republic of China on Sunday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Patrick has also served as assistant coach on two Australian Olympic teams in 2021 and 2024.
After comfortable wins over Philippines and Islamic Republic of Iran in their previous knockout round games, the Boomers trailed by 14 early in the second period.
Xavier Cooks then engineered the comeback which maintained Australia’s unbeaten record since their tournament debut in 2017.
The Sydney Kings star, who played 10 games for the NBA’s Washington Wizards at the end of the 2022-23 season, bagged 11 points in the period second period as Australia cut China lead to just four, 46-42, after two quarters.
China still had a three-point advantage going to the final quarter.
Having had a quieter third quarter, Cooks came out firing in a fourth period which was nip and tuck all the way.
Jaylin Galloway and Hu Mingxuan exchanged three-pointers with the latter scoring 2:15 from time to put the Chinese 87-86 ahead.
The Australian defense then stood firm, not giving up another point for over two minutes. In the meantime, a William Hickey basket and a free throw from Will Magnay made it 89-87.
With seven seconds to go, Jack White blocked a Lei Meng three-point attempt before Cooks was fouled. But the forward was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct before hitting one of two free throws.
Zhao Rui then made both free throws to close the gap to one, but Hu Mingxuan could not make the three-pointer on the buzzer as Australia joined China (three occasions) as the only nation to claim three consecutive crowns.
Cooks finished with 30 points and nine rebounds, with Galloway making six three-pointers in his 23-point haul.
Patrick now returns to LSU as the 2025-26 Tigers will return for their first team meeting of the fall semester on Sunday.
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