Serbia Survives French Comeback, Advances To FIBA Final

France stunned the world with a quarterfinal upset over the heavily favored Spaniards on Wednesday, but as we’ve seen throughout the 2014 FIBA World Cup, nothing is guaranteed in a single-elimination tournament. Despite a furious fourth quarter rally from downtown from the French, Serbia was able to outlast their opponent and advance to the gold medal game with a 90-85 victory.

Serbia had five players finish in double figures and was led by 24 points from Milos Teodosic, a 27-year-old veteran from CSKA Moscow. After putting the Spanish offense on lockdown in the quarterfinal, France was unable to do the same against an effective Serbian pick-and-roll attack in the first half. Teodosic had 18 points through two quarters to help give his team a 46-32 advantage at the break and shot 9-for-12 for the game.

France basically played Serbia to a draw in the third quarter, but with their backs to the wall, Nicolas Batum and company came out firing in the fourth. What was once an 18-point lead in the second half rapidly dissolved to a four-point game with a little more than five minutes to play. From there it became a back-and-forth shootout to the finish.

Bogdan Bogdanovic was the first to fire back, knocking down a three on the next possession to extend Serbia’s lead back to seven. Bogdanovic made a ton of Phoenix Suns fans happy with some clutch playmaking and big shots in the fourth quarter to help Serbia hold off the French advance. He finished with 13 points and four assists while shooting 4-for-5 from the field. Stefan Markovic, Miroslav Raduljica and former NBA player Nenad Krstic scored 11 points apiece and Nemanja Bjelica added 10.

Bogdanovic’s three felt like a potential dagger, but Batum would not be denied, responding with a huge three of his own a few possessions later to cut the lead to  70-66. A Bogdanovic layup extended the lead back to six and a Teodosic triple gave the Serbians a nine-point advantage with less than three minutes to play. At that point, it felt over. But again, Batum would. NOT. BE. DENIED.

He immediately answered with a contested three of his own. Batum was absolutely on fire in the fourth, scoring 17 of his 35 total points in the final period to keep France’s hopes of a gold medal on life support. He shot an unbelievable 8-for-12 from downtown and made half of his threes in the fourth. Excluding Batum’s last-second heave from half court with the game already decided, the French shot 9-for-12 from downtown in the fourth quarter.

But it still wasn’t enough to help France pull off the late comeback, since Serbia’s well-balanced offensive attack couldn’t be guarded throughout the game. Despite outscoring their opponents by 10 in the quarter, France still gave up 29 points to Serbia in the fourth, the most points they gave up in any quarter of the game. At one point, Serbia scored on 10-of-11 consecutive possessions. It made for some great back-and-forth basketball, but you’re not going to win many games that way. Especially when plays like Raduljica’s miracle tip-in happen.

Still, the French had their chances late. After securing a rebound from a missed Teodosic pull-up jumper, France had the ball and faced a three-point deficit with 23 seconds left. But the Serbians boldly fouled intentionally to send Huertel to the line before he could launch a three-pointer. Huertel went 1-for-2 from the line, the French had to foul and the Serbians made their free throws to close things out.

Boris Diaw followed up Batum’s masterful shooting night with 13 points, 10 rebounds and five assists while Thomas Huertel added 12 points and six assists. Evan Fournier added 10 while Rudy Gobert had four points, five rebounds and two blocks in 23 minutes.

The French will play Lithuania in the bronze medal game Saturday, while the Serbians will advance to the gold medal game Sunday, where they will play the heavily favored United States team.