EuroBasket 2013: France ousts Spain in OT Thriller

EuroBasket 2013

In the second EuroBasket 2013 semifinal it took Tony Parker and a few of his closest friends an extra session to send the two-time defending champions from Spain to the consolation round with a 75:72 defeat. Parker put up 32 for France against their Spanish rivals to put France in the finals against Lithuania, who routed Croatia 77:62.

Lithuania’s last time in the championship game was in 2003 in Stockholm when they defeated Spain 93:84 and in 2007 they finished third in Madrid beating Greece 78:69 for the bronze medals. France made it to the title game against Spain in 2011, falling 98:85, they also finished third in 2005 in Belgrade, beating Spain by 30, 98:68, in the bronze medal contest.

Parker scored 32 points on the night and moved into second place on the all-time EuroBasket scoring list behind Nikolaos Galis (1,004 career EuroBasket points in 32 games) of Greece, and ahead of Dirk Nowitzki (983 in 44 games) of Germany. Parker’s point total, 985, comes after his 58th EuroBasket match and leaves him needing 20 points in the title match to take over the top spot.

Lithuania – Croatia, 77:62
Lithuania used a big third quarter to grab a spot in the EuroBasket title contest. Jonas Maciulis dropped 23 for the Lithuanians and teammate Linas Kleiza added a 22P/11R double-double to the winning effort. Bojan Bogdanovic led Croatia with 15.

The clubs stayed close in the first frame, with Lithuania getting their biggest lead of five points late in the quarter, and then again after a pair of singles by Kleiza, putting the score at 24:19 heading into the second 10.

After opening the second quarter with a quick three-ball, then connecting on a pair of free throws less than a minute later, Kleiza put Lithuania up by nine, 29:20, a minute into the new 10. Croatia hit seven unanswered to cut the margin to two, 29:27, and within a minute later got two jumpers from Luka Zoric to knot the score at 31. Mantas Kalnietis knocked down a three-ball shortly after to put the Lithuanians up 38:33 and Croatia’s Damir Markota connected on a layup with 25 seconds to play in the half to cut the gap to three, 40:37.

Jonas Maciulis opened the scoring in the third with a triple for Lithuania, then Krunoslav Simon tipped in a missed layup for Croatia a minute later. Simon’s tip would be the last time the Croatians would see the tally on their side of the scoreboard change for awhile, as the Lithuanians would put together an 18:2 run that ended with 2:28 left in the frame with a score of 58:41. Ante Tomic connected on a pair of singles with three seconds left in the quarter for Croatia, cutting the margin to 16, 61:45.

Kalnietis hit a jumper at the 7:09 mark to give the Lithuanians a 20-point lead, but it lasted only 18 seconds as Kimon countered with a jumper of his own to bring the lead back to under 20. The closest Croatia got was 14, but they were able to score the last four of the contest to get to within 15, 77:62.

On Sunday the Lithuanians will square off against France for the EuroBasket cup, while the Croatians will meet Spain for the bronze medals, also on Sunday.

France – Spain, 75:72
EuroBasket 2013The squad from France relied very heavily on the leadership and skills of their leader, Tony Parker, on Friday and after falling behind by as many as 14 took the two-time defending champions to an extra period. Parker and Antoine Diot were both four of four at the line down the stretch to earn a spot opposite Lithuanian in Sunday’s finals. Parker’s game high 32 didn’t come easy as the Frenchman hit shots all over the floor, but wasn’t afraid to drive the lane and take on the Spanish big men.

Spain built a small lead in the first, outscoring France 18:14 in the opening stanza, but it was the second quarter that set the tone for the contest. France shot 0 of 8 from behind the arc in the second, and could only manage to put up six in the frame, while Spain tallied 16. During Spain’s 13:0 run in the second, where they built a 14-point lead, it looked like France was forcing shots, but the bottom line was that the ball wasn’t falling through the cylinder for the Frenchmen. For their pair, Spain didn’t really take advantage of the troubles France was having as they were only able to put up 16 in the quarter and only took a 14-point lead into the break. During that break, France realized that their quest for the shiny medals wasn’t over just yet…

[In the locker-rooms] we looked at the score and we realised that we can win this game, the score was very low.

Our defence was not bad, we had held Spain, which is a great offensive team, to 34 points so we knew we had to be better offensively.

Why we couldn’t score? Because we were not aggressive enough, we let them push us around and we had to react, play hard and be tougher in the second half.
–France’s captain Boris Diaw

After coming up empty as a team from behind the arc in the first half, it was the long-ball that got France back into the game and ultimately what won the game for them. Diot knocked down two consecutive triples to cut the Spanish advantage to six, 35:29. Marc Gasol hit a pair of free throws for Spain, as did Parker for France, but then Sergio Rodriquez tossed up a gorgeous alley-oop for a flying Rudy Fernandez to extend the lead back to eight for Spain. The Rodriquez-Fernandez duo would connect three times during the second half, resulting in rim-shaking dunks that were impossible to defend against. Mickael Gelabale and Parker hit back-to-back and unanswered triples starting at the 2:56 mark, cutting the difference to three, 44:41. Fernandez sank a pair of free throws and during the final two minutes of the frame the Frenchmen would miss four jumpers, before Gelabale sank a deuce with 32 seconds left, cutting the lead to three, 46:43. Sergio Llull dropped a long-ball for Spain to close out scoring in the third at 49:43.

Nando De Colo opened scoring in the final 10 with a three-pointer for France, and Gelabale hit a jumper shortly after to cut the lead to a point, 49:48. Fernandez got another feed from Rodriguez and was fouled by Gelabale on the way by. Closing out the three-point play, put the Spaniards up four again, 52:48 with 7:32 to play. Parker dropped in a layup with just over three minutes to play to knot the score at 61 and gave France the lead for the first time since he sank a layup with 1:54 to play in the first quarter. Gasol got the lead back for Spain with a jumper. Alexis Ajinca split a pair of free throws to tie the score at 65, which is where it stood when the buzzer sounded, sending the clubs into an extra frame.

France opened the overtime session with a series of missed shots and turnovers, that resulted in burning 90 seconds off the clock with neither team putting up any points. Gasol dropped a pair of free throws with 3:32 to play to open scoring. Ajinca hit one of three jumpers in the final frame, but shortly after was whistled for his fifth foul, sending France’s big man to the bench. The rest of the way was free throws from Parker and Diot, Parker hitting 8 of 9 on the day (4 0f 4 in the final two minutes, and Diot connecting on 4 of 4.

Parker’s 32 was game-high for France and Diot added 10. Gasol led Spain with 10 points and 9 rebounds, Fernandez added 17, and Rodriguez tallied 11 points, 6 rebounds, and 9 assists.

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