Australia continue their 2019 FIBA World Cup campaign on Tuesday at 5.30pm (AEST) when they take on Senegal.
We will be bringing you a brief preview and betting tips for all of the Australian games in the World Cup. Check out our prediction for Australia vs Senegal below and good luck to everyone following!
FIBA World Cup Betting Tips
Australia vs Senegal (Tuesday, 5.30pm AEST)
Australia were too good for Canada in their first game of the World Cup and will go in as huge favourites against Senegal on Tuesday as a result. It may seem like an easy kill for a talented Boomers outfit, but a huge slip up could see them fail to progress from what’s been labelled as the Group of Death (Group H).
Australia
The Boomers got off to a great start in their opening match against Canada to lead them by 12 points at half time. However, the Canadians hit their straps in the third quarter and actually led by a point at three-quarter time. This seemingly shocked the Boomers into gear in the fourth quarter as they regained the lead and went on to win by a fairly comfortable 16 points (108-92).
All the off-season work that Matthew Dellavedova put into his shot is already starting to pay off. Delly finished with a game-high 24 points, while shooting an impressive 6/10 from beyond-the-arc. Also impressive was the playmaking ability of wing Joe Ingles who finished the game with 13 points and nine assists.
The opening game victory for the Boomers has landed them in a really good position to progress through to the next phase of the tournament. A win on Tuesday night will just about ensure them of progression.
Senegal
The Senegalese national basketball team, AKA the Lions, got their World Cup campaign off to a really disappointing start. They were drawn into arguably the toughest group in the tournament and it looked that way when they went down in their opening match to Lithuania by 54 points (101-47).
Managing to score just 47 points in 40 minutes of basketball is a worrying sign for the Lions and giving up 100+ points to their opponents was equally as worrying. No one on their roster ended up in double-digits for scoring, with Maurice Ndour, Ibrahima Faye, and Babacar Toure leading the way with eight points apiece.
Admittedly, there’s a lot of unknown about the ‘Lions’ squad and how competitive they can be. Their most well-known player is the absent Gorgui Deng who plays for the Minnesota Timberwolves in the NBA. This leaves Maurice Ndour and Mouhammad Faye as the key players to watch. Both of these men have had short stints in the NBA at some point during their careers.
Prediction
Judging by the way both teams played in their opening match, this can only go one way. The Boomers won their first match by 16 and the Lions lost theirs by 54. The Boomers will win and win comfortably, it’s just a matter of by how much.
There aren’t too many markets up at the major agencies at the moment, but one we do like is the handicap, which has been set at 35.5. The Aussies have a really well-rounded team with the firepower required to blow lesser teams out of the water, and we believe this is going to be a prime example of that. Happy to back them in to win by anything up to 40+ here.
