Australian Fall in Bracket Play in Madrid

Jessica Petrie scored six points and grabbed two rebounds, but Australia suffered a 74-67 loss to Mali to open bracket play at the 2023 U19 Women's World Cup in Madrid, Spain on Wednesday.

Petrie, a 6-2 forward from Gold Coast, Australia, added two assists and a blocked shot in just under 12 minutes of action off the bench for Australia. She assisted on a made three-pointer that gave Australia its biggest lead of the second half at 49-44 with 2:55 left in the third quarter.

But Australia was unable to hold the lead to the end of the period and never led in the fourth quarter, as Mali worked its way to the win. Australia got off to a solid start, building multiple eight-point leads in the first quarter including a 15-7 edge after Petrie's made three-pointer with two minutes left in the period. Australia maintained the lead at 18-10 after an assist from Petrie with 1:08 remaining in the quarter.

However, Mali cut the margin to 20-17 at the end of the first 10 minutes, then took a 38-36 edge to halftime.

The Australians return to action on Friday at 2 a.m. (CT) when they take on Brazil, which took an 89-45 loss to Canada on Wednesday.