Opals remain unbeaten at World Cup despite 2am fire alarm

Australia’s Opals made it two wins from two at the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup, beating Türkiye 87-71 in Berlin after a disrupted night at their hotel.

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That’s a what-if situation, isn’t it? Now we have that in our toolbox. Never done that before.

New captain Ezi Magbegor led Australia with 21 points from 14 shots, while Steph Talbot added 17 points. The result followed the Opals’ 70-54 opening victory over Puerto Rico and left Sandy Brondello’s team on course to reach the knockout stages.

Both teams received a 2am wake-up call when a fire alarm sounded at the team hotel. Players and coaches evacuated before returning about an hour later. Brondello said there was no fire and that someone had pressed the emergency alarm button in an elevator.

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It was kind of crazy. Just kind of happened. Knowing that it’s out of our control, so just getting back to sleep and waking up. No-one was going to feel sorry for us.

The interrupted sleep did not appear to affect Australia in the first game of the day, which began at 11:30am local time. “No-one was going to feel sorry for us,” Magbegor said. Türkiye coach Andrea Masson said he and his players slept for about three hours, adding that the disruption was “not an excuse, but that’s the reality.”

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They had a really bad night last night. That’s not an excuse, but that’s the reality.