France Eliminates USA from Basketball World Cup in Major Upset

Voice of America
12 Sep 2019, 04:05 GMT+10

DONGGUAN, CHINA. - Rudy Gobert scored 21 points and grabbed 16 rebounds as France handed the United States their first loss in the FIBA World Cup in 13 years on Wednesday to advance to the semi-finals in China with an 89-79 win.

France will play next on Friday against Argentina, who advanced by defeating Serbia on Tuesday night.

Shooting guard Donovan Mitchell of the NBA's Utah Jazz scored 29 points as he helped the Americans to cut down a 10-point French advantage in the third quarter and seize back the lead in the southern Chinese city of Dongguan.

But the French came back, led by the imposing Gobert and sharp-shooting small forward Evan Fournier of the Orlando Magic.

Fournier slashed to the hoop for a driving lay-up to give France the lead again at 78-76 and they held off the Americans through the final minutes.

The writing has been on the wall for the USA squad, which sent a team of second-tier stars to the competition and promptly suffered a shock loss to Australia in a warm-up exhibition two weeks ago.

The loss in Melbourne was the first for the United States in 78 consecutive games in major competitions and exhibition games.

Watch latest videos

News RELEASES

Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Sydney Sun.

More Information

Business

Section

Human rights concerns over plans for no-deal Brexit

LONDON, UK - The UK government has been forced by Parliament to make public its contingency plans in the event ...

Bob Iger quits Apple as streaming services go head-to-head

CUPERTINO, California - Walt Disney Co Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger has quit the Apple board as the two companies, ...

Dow Jones inches ahead in otherwise flat market Friday

NEW YORK, New York - Strong U.S. retail sales and data showing a rise in U.S. consumer sentiment encouraged investors ...

Sale of Ohio pipeline to NEXUS to come with FTC conditions

Joint venture NEXUS Gas Transmission, LLC, and its member companies, DTE Energy Company and Enbridge Inc., will settle Federal Trade ...

Stocks in Asia hit six-week high

SYDNEY, NSW, Australia - Stocks in Asia hit a 6 week high on Friday on news overnight that the ECB ...

NFL and Facebook combine to take football global

NEW YORK, New York - The National Football League and Facebook have announced a multi-year partnership extension which will see ...

International

Section