France ousts US as Australia makes semis
FRANCE blew the FIBA Basketball World Cup wide open yesterday by handing the United States its first loss in the competition in 13 years in their quarterfinal clash, powered by a double-double from big man Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz.
The historic 89-79 win for France eliminates the Americans early from the competition in China, dashing their hopes of a third straight title.
The prospect of an American exit had looked increasingly possible after the US sent a squad of second-tier stars and the loss is likely to prompt soulsearching in USA Basketball.
Gobert, the two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year, had 3 blocks, including a key rejection down the stretch to help France seal the victory in Dongguan, southern Guangdong Province.
The 7-feet, 1-inch center called the win “unbelievable”.
“I’ve been dreaming about this for a while. I was thinking we might never get the opportunity (to beat the US) again and I told that to the guys,” Gobert, who had 21 points and 16 rebounds, said. “It doesn’t mean much if you don’t win the gold, but it will go down as one of the biggest wins of my career and one of the biggest wins for French basketball for sure.”
In a hint of the sniping that may result in the US over the debacle, shooting guard Donovan Mitchell, who lead the Americans with 29 points, hit back at critics of the team.
“You guys are going to go on and say who we didn’t have but why don’t you all focus on who we do have?” he told reporters.
“We have 12 guys that want to compete for America, just like every other country. It sucks that some of our country people don’t feel that way about us, but we don’t care. We wanted to compete and we did.”
France will play Argentina, which made it to the final four by defeating Serbia, tomorrow.
The US loss sets up an enticing consolation match with Serbia today. Packed with National Basketball Association players, the two were favorites and will be trying to salvage pride.
Yesterday’s contest was marked by big lead changes, and Mitchell’s jumpers and slashing moves to the basket helped the Americans cut down a 10-point French advantage in the third quarter to seize back the lead.
But Mitchell cooled in the fourth and the French came back, led by Gobert and small forward Evan Fournier of the Orlando Magic, who led France in scoring with 22 points.
Fournier slashed to the hoop for a driving lay-up to give France the lead again at 78-76 with about three minutes left.
With under a minute left and down by four, Mitchell squirted into the lane for a layup but Gobert smothered the shot by his Jazz teammate and the Americans didn’t get any closer.
The win raises the prospect of France adding a Basketball World Cup title to the football World Cup hardware it won in Russia last year.
It will first have to get past Argentina. In the other bracket, Spain will face Australia, which saw off the debutante Czech Republic 82-70 in yesterday’s other quarterfinal.
In Shanghai, San Antonio Spurs’ Patty Mills was in sparkling form once more as Australia reached the World Cup semifinals for the first time.
The Boomers had never gone beyond the quarterfinals in 11 previous appearances.
The 31-year-old guard Mills led the scoring with 24 points. He also had 6 assists and 4 rebounds. Chris Goulding scored 14 and Andrew Bogut added 10 for Australia.
Australia was the heavy favorite at the Oriental Sports Center in Pudong against the Czechs, who bravely hung on until midway through the third quarter.
Patrik Auda scored 21 points for the Czechs. Tomas Satoransky was 1 rebound shy of the first triple-double in World Cup history — he finished with 13 points, 13 assists and 9 rebounds.
(Agencies)