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Boomers Fail To Medal Again As Spain Triumphs In Final Seconds Thriller

"Obviously we're gutted," says Patty Mills as tears flow and Boomers miss a medal yet again.

Boomers NBA stars, Matthew Dellavadova and Joe Ingles were reduced to tears following Australia's crushing last-ten-second loss to Spain in the Olympic Bronze Medal play off.

Down a point with just over five seconds on the clock, the Boomers lost possession as they tried to shift the ball to Patty Mills for the final play, handing victory to Spain.

It followed a tightly fought encounter in which the Boomers felt they were on the wrong side of several refereeing decisions. Andrew Bogut slammed the officials after the match, claiming they'd fallen for the Spaniards "diving" throughout the encounter.

"We spoke about it at halftime that they were flopping all over the place…Give them credit, they played well. I don't blame Spain. If the refs are calling it, you keep doing it," he said.

Spanish NBA star Pau Gasol was enormous for his team, racking up 31 points in a dominant display. The loss is Australia's fourth defeat in a bronze medal match, the latest coming despite the team having more NBA players in its midst than ever before (6 in total). Coming into the Rio they already held the record for the most men's basketball Olympic appearances without winning a medal. The Boomers were knocked out of the Gold Medal qualifier in a shock loss to Serbia, who were easily defeated in a 30-point drubbing by the USA for the Gold. An emotional Patty Mills told reporters the team was "gutted."

"We're obviously all gutted all the boys, knowing how much hard work and dedication they've put in to being able to achieve something we all desperately wanted," he said.

"It's a tough feeling but on behalf of the boys we'd like to thank everyone in Australia for the amount of support they've given us throughout this whole journey because its been one hell of a journey and we certainly feel like the rest of this country was on this journey with us."