The basketball gods punished the Australian basketball national team for intentionally losing the game against Angola some days ago with a painful and stinging 65-to-64 loss to Turkey in the Round of 16 knockout stages of the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Madrid, Spain.

That the Turkish side trailed practically all-game long made it even worse for the Boomers, who were criticised for tanking their game against the African team in the final game of the group phase.

Australia led 18-to-15 after the first quarter, 35-to-34 at the half and 50-to-46 after the third canto. The Boomers even led 57-to-49 about halfway to go in the fourth and final quarter.

Australia lost to Angola, 83-91 last Thursday in a supposed non-bearing game but basketball fans from all quarters and even some basketball players criticised the Aussie’s effort as the loss allowed the Australians to avoid the mighty Team USA in the quarterfinals.

The problem was the Australians couldn’t even get past the Round of 16 stage or the never-say-die Turkish players.

Trailing 59-to-64 with over a minute to go, Turkey went to Emir Preldzic, who hit clutch back-to-back booming triples to put Turkey ahead, 65-to-64 with five seconds to go in the game.

Joe Ingles had a chance to give Australia back the lead and the game but turned the ball over when he bobbled the ball on the way to the paint.

Watch the collapse of Australia against Turkey in the highlights below:

(YouTube/FIBA)

Turkish hero Preldzic top-scored with 16 points with 7 rebounds and 2 steals along with shooting guard Sinan Guler who also had 16 markers. Point guard Ender Arslan added 11 points.

The Aussie’s loss wasted great efforts from Matthew Dellavedova (13 points and 5 assists) of the Cleveland Cavaliers; Joe Ingles (10 points, 4/5 field goals); and Aron Baynes (15 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocked shots) of the San Antonio Spurs.

The win meant that Turkey, a wildcard qualifier in the 2014 FIBA World Cup, will appear in the quarterfinals for the third consecutive time in the world championship. Turkey will face Lithuania in the QF round while the Australia missed the chance to make the final eight— could have been a first since the basketball world championships in Canada twenty years ago.