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Boomers bomb out in disappointing fashion

Australia's dreams of a maiden gold medal in men's basketball are over after a humiliating 87-61 loss to Serbia in the semi-finals in Rio.

It was a wire-to-wire disaster for the Boomers, who trailed by 11 points at quarter time and 21 at the half.

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They will play world No.2 Spain for the bronze medal on Sunday night, who went down to Team USA earlier.

Devastated. Image: Getty

Milos Teodosic was unstoppable for Serbia.

With a mountain to climb in the second half, Australia was unable to fire a shot against a team they had beaten 95-80 earlier in the tournament.

Even when they did start to play better in the third quarter, Serbia responded.

Teodosic was also the glue that made Serbia's game plan stick and he was playing a calm leading role that was getting the job done.

Earlier, Australian made a sluggish start and Lemanis was forced to call a time-out when his side trailed 8-0.

The difference blew out to as much as 31 points in the final term, ruining any chance of a comeback victory.

Patty Mills and Brock Motum each scored 13 points, while Joe Ingles added 12 and had seven rebounds.

It's the fourth time they have lost a semi-final at the Games, following defeats in 1988, 1996 and 2000.

Forward Joe Ingles: "It was pathetic. Nothing Australian about it."

Centre Andrew Bogut: "They kicked our ass from start to finish."

Assistant coach Luc Longley: "Shitty loss."

Well put, gents.

"The energy with which we started the game wasn't where it needed to be," a dejected Lemanis said.

"It's a mindset that you bring to it. And we obviously as a team weren't where we needed to be at the start of the game - for whatever reason."