France knock defending champion US out of Basketball World Cup medal rounds
- Americans lose in tournament medal rounds for the first time in 17 years
- Australia make history after defeating the Czech Republic and reaching the semi-finals
France caused the biggest shock of the basketball World Cup in China, beating the defending champion United States 89-79 in Dongguan on Wednesday to reach the semi-finals of the 32-nation tournament.
France will meet Argentina on Friday for a berth in Sunday’s final while 2006 champions Spain take on the winners of the Australia v Czech Republic quarter-final, played later on Wednesday.
The United States, favourites to win their third successive and sixth overall world title, dropped into the 5th-8th place play-offs after they failed to reach the medal rounds for the first time since the 2002 tournament in Indianapolis.
The Americans were beaten in a last-eight clash by the former Yugoslavia in that tournament and they next face Serbia, who were billed as their most likely rival in a gold-medal game in this year’s event.
Having ground out a barely deserved 93-92 overtime win over Turkey in the preliminary group stage, there was to be no escape for the US this time against an athletic French side that overpowered them in every department.
An aggressive French defence forced a flurry of first-half turnovers and having engineered a 45-39 halftime lead, they surged 51-41 early in the third quarter thanks to inspired performances from Evan Fournier and Rudy Gobert.
