2024 Paris Olympics: Chase Budinger, Miles Evans close out Australia in straight sets to reach knockout round

Chase Budinger and Miles Evans are headed to the knockout round.

The American duo closed out Australia’s Zachery Schubert and Thomas Hodges in their Lucky Loser Match on Saturday night in straight sets 21-19, 21-17 in front of the Eiffel Tower. That officially pushed Budinger and Evans into the Round of 16.

Budinger — who played basketball at Arizona before a seven-year career in the NBA — and Evans fell to Spain’s Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira in straight sets on Friday to drop to 1-2 in pool play. That sent the American duo into Saturday’s play-in game with Australia. Schubert and Hodges also finished in third in Pool C standings with a 1-2 record.

Australia jumped out a step ahead early in the first set, and repeatedly held a two point lead for much of the game. Finally, though, Budinger came through. He expertly blocked a pair of shots at the net to tie the game up 18-18, and then he blocked a second straight one that just barely landed inside the court to give the U.S. their first lead since the opening point of the night.

Then after a timeout, Budinger came through again and slammed it down at the net for a third straight point. Though they couldn’t close it out right away, Evans won the second set point with a huge closer to give the Americans the early lead with the 21-19 win. That capped a 5-1 run, which completely flipped the game around down the stretch.

That run carried over through the break and extended into a 19-13 advantage for the Americans, which put them up by three midway through the second game. Though Australia hung in there for a bit, Evans and Budinger held on the rest of the day. Evans even came up with a wild dig to save what should have been an Australian point to push them to a 19-15 lead, which allowed them to quickly close out the win in straight sets.

This post will be updated with more information shortly.