France has defeated Team USA 89-79 at the quarterfinal round of the FIBA World Cup. The loss meant the U.S. will be out from medal contention and this will be the first time since the 2006 world championships that the US failed to win gold at a major international tournament.
France rallied back from a seven-point deficit in the fourth quarter to pull the upset behind Evan Fournier's 22 points and Rudy Gobert's 21 points and 16 rebounds. Nando De Colo also contributed 18 points.
Gobert said "We came here to win gold. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. A lot of people counted us out, but we got the win.” He argued that defeating the Team USA was not their goal but winning the gold, saying "It doesn’t mean anything if you don’t win in the end."
While Donovan Mitchell scored 29 points for the U.S. in the first three quarters, it was not enough to defeat France. Prior to the loss, Team USA has won 58 consecutive tournament games in FIBA and Olympic competition after it won bronze at the 2006 FIBA World Championship. Since then, it has won in every FIBA Americas, World Cup and Olympics event.
During the quarterfinal, France led by 10 early in the second half before the U.S. went on a 31-14 run over the next 10 minutes to lead by seven. However, France responded with a 15-2 rally over the next five minutes and held Team USA scoreless for six consecutive possessions down the stretch.
With 2:05 left in the game, Frank Ntilikina sank a long jumper, which extended France's lead to six. With about a minute remaining, the U.S. had the opportunity to cut the lead to two with Mitchell driving against his Utah Jazz teammate Gobert but the French center read the situation and swatted away the attempt.
Prior to the win, France had a record of 0-9 against the U.S. in major international competition.
