At home, in Malaga, Spain deprived the French team of a final against the United States (53-68). An unfortunate clumsiness in free throws at a key moment cost dearly.
For 3’15, we had a false impression of what was going to happen in this semi-final. During this period of time, the Spaniards have not put a point caught in the clutches of the hyper-athletic French. 8-1. Only, these same Spaniards quickly found the North, and showed the Bleuets that they too know how to defend hard, collectively. And also that their traditional mastery of the fundamentals does not prevent them from also possessing an athletic dimension.
In addition, Spain has a giant of 2.20 m, in the person of Aday Mara Gomez, who hurts. When he was on the field, it was not the same song, but his teammates proved that they could play without him when he was barred by fouls.
Three figures sting the eyes: the 36-54 in rebounds in favor of the Spaniards, the 2/19 three-pointers of the Blueberries and especially their 11/25 in free throws. This clumsiness on the penalty line cost dearly when they led 48-42 with 2 minutes remaining in the 3rd quarter because, at that time, they could have built on their advantage. France also lacked a go to guy like neither Noah Penda, imperfectly recovered from his sprained ankle, nor Ilian Pietrus, who scored 5 points each. In the end, it was Zacharie Risacher who left the field with the best evaluation (10), but only scoring 2 points.
Subsequently, the boys of Bernard Faure collapsed against the Spaniards who rose to power. A three-pointer from Lucas Langarita, 3 minutes from the end was a kind of knockout (53-62). Then it only remained to count the damage.
In the other semi-final, the United States beat Lithuania 89-62. So much so that the Spaniards will face the invincible American armada in the final, and the French the Baltics.
The boxscore is HERE.
Photo : Ilian Pietrus (FIBA)
