The French basketball team was beaten in the final of the U19 World Cup against Spain. Already unfortunate finalists in the previous edition, the Blues have long been on par with the Spaniards, even pushing them into extra time. But the step was finally too high to win the gold.
The Spain U19 basketball team won the World Cup final 73-69 after extra time against the French on Sunday in Debrecen, Hungary. Fallers of the Americans in the semi-finals (89-86), the Blueberries have long been on par with the Spaniards, themselves wide winners of Turkey (83-51) in the half, after having easily disposed of Argentina in the quarter (85-47) and Lebanon in 8th (102-20).
Suffocating encounter
As with the “big boys”, the Franco-Spanish opposition gave rise to a stifling and very closed meeting, where the “Rojita” turned in the lead by a small point in the first quarter (19-18). The rest of the match was just as disputed, the attacks struggling to express themselves, as evidenced by the 28 balls lost by the Bleuets. The men of Lamine Kebe, carried by the big performances of Melvin Ajinça (21 points, 4 rebounds) and Zacharie Perrin (14 points but especially 20 rebounds) seemed to have done the hardest in the last quarter, counting up to seven points lead (53-46), the biggest gap of the match less than six minutes from the end of regulation time.
But a basket from Jordi Rodriguez (18 points, 3 rebounds) less than 20 seconds from the end of regulation time allowed the Spaniards to pick up the score (63-63) and snatch extra time. Less present on the rebound, feverish in money-time, the French lacked control and ended up yielding in overtime against the Spaniards, who had not won this title since 1999. Les Bleuets chained them a second World Cup final lost after 2021, when the team then led by Victor Wembanyama had already come up against the last step against the United States.