Australian officials deny team tanked international basketball game

Australian basketball officials say they “categorically reject” any claims that their team tanked last week’s game against Angola in the 2014 FIBA World Cup.

The sport’s international governing body has launched an investigation to determine whether the Australians purposely lost the pool game, 91-83, to avoid meeting the powerful U.S. team until later in the tournament.

“The Australian Boomers went into the game against Angola to win -- plain and simple,” Basketball Australia said in a statement released Tuesday. “Claims to the contrary are widely speculative, insulting to the Australian sporting culture and to our playing group who gave their very best throughout this tournament. They’re downright wrong.”

Several of the team’s strongest players remained on the sideline as a 15-point lead slipped away.

“Basketball Australia has put a strong and detailed case to FIBA outlining why the decision was made to rest injured players and restrict playing time for fatigued players during the last game day of Group D,” the statement said. “That decision was supported by clear and definitive medical advice.”

The defeat meant the Australians would not have faced the U.S. until the semifinals. As it turned out, they lost to Turkey and were eliminated.

National team officials said they will cooperate with FIBA’s investigation and look forward to “a resolution which closes the book on these fundamentally inaccurate allegations.”