BATON ROUGE – For LSU Basketball’s associate head coach David Patrick, it was a successful trip to serve as assistant coach as the Australia Boomers won the Gold Medal in the FIBA Asia Cup for a third straight time with a nail-biting 90-89 win over the People’s Republic of China on Sunday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

China’s run to basketball’s Fiba Asia Cup final was “just the start”, captain Zhao Rui said after an agonising loss to Australia late on Sunday. Hu Mingxuan missed a potential game-winner in the dying seconds, sealing China’s 90-89 loss as the Australians secured a three-peat in Jeddah.

Australia escaped China in a thrilling gold medal match, 90-89, early Monday (Manila time) to complete a Fiba Asia Cup three-peat at King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah,