The Gangurrus will wonder what could have been, coming within a bucket of an automatic semi-final position and then booted from their Olympics debut campaign.
There will be no medal for Australia's women's 3x3 team, who were travelling beautifully at Paris's La Concorde until hosts France woke from their slumber to scupper a top-two pool finish in an overtime 18-16 win.
The loss to France, who finished last in the round-robin stage, dropped Australia from second - which would have brought instant semi-final passage - to fifth and a quarter-final with Canada.
The Canadians then made light work of Australia, claiming a 21-10 win that thrust them into a semi-final against Germany, and ended the Gangurrus tournament.
USA, who started slowly, play Spain for the other spot in the gold-medal game.