A late substitute Australian team bounded home with a monumental upset win as part of a series of goodwill sports games during Exercise Malabar.
Eight teams from the Indian, Japanese, US and Royal Australian navies gathered for a basketball tournament, as crews from the member nations competed for national pride and bragging rights ahead of the exercise’s sea phase.
In a shock upset, a ring-in team from HMAS Supply toppled the USS Rafael Peralta 11-8 during the round-robin stage, despite the highly-skilled US team winning all their other games by at least twenty point margins.
HMAS Supply team captain, Leading Seaman Manuel Salas said his team was still in shock from the win, with the crew thinking a loss was definitely on the cards.
“The nerves were pretty high before the game. The Americans are amazing – after all, it’s their sport – and they…