Liberty Coach, Australia Take Home Olympic Bronze

New York Liberty head coach Sandy Brondllo earned her fourth Olympic medal with Australia's bronze medal game victory over Belgium.

Aug 7, 2024; Paris, France; Australia head coach Sandy Brondello directs players against Serbia during the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games at Accor Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports / Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

New York Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello is coming back to Brookyn with a very fine addition to her Olympic collection.

Under Brondello's watch, the Australian women's national basketball team is back on the Olympic podium, taking down Belgium by an 85-81 final the bronze medal game of the Paris Games' tournament on Sunday. Ezi Magbegor (Seattle) led the way with a 30-point, 13-rebound double-double while former New Yorker Sami Whitcomb (Seattle) hadded 14 points and five assists.

Sunday's bronze is Brondello's fourth Olympic medal, having earned three as a player in 1996, 2000, and 2004. The Opals also finish among the top three for the first time since 2012.

Though denied the gold by the United States (partly led by Liberty proteges Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart), Australia boasts one of the finest comeback stories of the Paris Games: the Opals lost another former New Yorker, Bec Allen, to an exhibition injury mere days before the tournament tipped and they also dropped their preliminary play opener to Nigeria. Having survived the deluge of bad news, the Opals go home with their sixth medal in 10 Olympic showings.

Sunday's consolation game was a showcase of two hungry squads yearning for the podium, one backed by a mostly pro-Belgium crowd at Bercy Arena. Neither team led by more than 10 at any point of Sunday's game, as both sides appeared to have an answer for the other's onslaughts. Australia, for example, led by seven in the latter stages of the second period but that was quickly erased by an 11-0 Belgian run.

A Whitcomb triple before the buzzer restored a slim lead at halftime and another in the second minute of the third put them up six. But the Belgian Cats, paced by Emma Meesseman and Julie Vanloo (Washington), quickly clawed at any big lead the Opals established.

Australia took the game's biggest lead, a 52-42 advantage, by the midway mark of the third, but a 19-8 run over the final five flipped things going into the fateful fourth. Vanloo had 13 points of that run alone and immediately opened the fourth with a triple that made it a two-possession game. That opened a battle of dueling threes (with Whitcomb, Meesseman, and Tess Madgen all getting involved) before the Opals took things inside, going on an 8-0 run capped off by a successful and-one for Alanna Smith (Minnesota).

Even the, Belgium wasn' going away quietly: another Madgen triple (one earned after Whitcomb saved the ball from going out of bounds) was able to temporarily stave off the rally but Antonio Delaere's duplicate set up a one-possession game going into the final minute. After stopping further Smith penetration, the Belgians appeared to find Delaere for the equalizer, but Steph Talbot (Los Angeles) swatted it away to the shock of the crowd. The Opals then forced a shot clock violation before free throws allowed the celebration to commence.

Despite the spirited showing, Belgium was denied a medal in its second Olympic visit, having previously fallen to host nation France in a semifinal that require overtime. Meesseman (26) and Vanloo (23) united for 49 of the 81 Belgian points, as the other Cats mustered only a mere 12 shots from the field beyond their efforts.

Brondello will resume her duties at the helm of the Liberty on Thursday when her seafoam savants return from the All-Star/Olympic break with a visit to Southern Californi to face Talbot's Los Angeles Sparks (9 p.m. ET, ESPN).

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