BEIJING, September 13
Marc Gasol netted 33 points and Ricky Rubio dished out 12 assists as Spain came from behind to beat Australia 95-88 in a double-overtime thriller and reach Sunday’s basketball World Cup final.
Contesting their first semifnal since winning the tournament in 2006, Spain led by a single point after the first quarter but suffered a shooting slump in the second that enabled the Australians to open up an eight-point lead.
With point guard Patty Mills, who notched a game-high 34 points, slashing to the basket and dictating the tempo, the Australians looked set to make it to the World Cup final for the first time. Both teams struggled to shoot from distance but Australia’s offensive rebounding and accuracy from close range put them in the driving seat for much of the second half.
Things were looking bad for Spain as Australia increased their lead to double digits in the third, but they upped the tempo on defence, finally getting to grips with Mills.
With Rubio threading passes all over the court, Gasol started to chip away at the lead, mixing up post-move scores and long-distance three-point bombs with trips to the free-throw line as Australia’s game plan started to unravel.
With both the United States and Serbia already eliminated, both sides sensed a glorious opportunity and a bruising encounter got even more physical as Spain battled back to force overtime wherein Spain finally found their offensive rhythm to pull away in the second and go through to Sunday’s final where they will face Argentina.
Argentina top France
Power forward Luis Scola scored a game-high 28 points and grabbed 13 rebounds as Argentina breezed past France 80-66 to book their place.
France blew the tournament wide open by beating favourites and reigning champions the United States in the quarter-finals, but they never got going here as centre Rudy Gobert struggled and shots from beyond the arc would not drop for them. Frank Ntilikina top-scored for the French with 16 points and Louis Labeyrie added eight off the bench, but all too often they left open lanes to the basket for the aggressive Argentine attack to exploit. Scola made the most of their defensive lapses, scoring ten points in the first quarter and he went on to hit three of four three-pointers and make nine of 10 free throws over the course of the game in a dominant offensive performance.
Facundo Campazzo drained a deep three to send the Argentines into halftime leading by seven, and though Labeyrie’s strong first-half showing off the bench had kept the French in touch, they were down by double digits midway through the third period. — Reuters
from The Tribune https://ift.tt/2QbyjYp
via Today’s News Headlines
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