Huge comeback puts France into EuroBasket semifinals
For the second straight game, France rallied to force overtime in their EuroBasket matchup. And for the second straight game, they scored in the final seconds, then dominated the extra period to advance to the semifinals with a 93-85 win over Italy. They will face the winner of Slovenia-Poland in the Final Four on Friday.
Thomas Heurtel finished with 20 points and eight assists for Les Bleus, including the tying basket with 5.2 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.
New Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert had 19 points and 14 rebounds, and New York Knicks guard Evan Fournier had 17 for France, who became the first team in 21 years (since Turkey in 2001) to win two overtime games in one EuroBasket tournament.
Meanwhile Italy, which shocked Nikola Jokic and Serbia in the quarterfinals, will go home after an agonizing loss in a game they led by seven with less than two minutes left.
Simone Fontecchio had a chance to win it with a layup at the buzzer, after missing two free throws with 16.9 seconds left to open the door for France.
In France's comeback win over Turkey one round earlier, it was Cedi Osman bricking two freebies while leading by two that enabled Les Bleus to tie it at the buzzer.
France started their comeback against Italy with a Gobert dunk, and overwhelmed the exhausted Italians the rest of the way, finishing on a 25-10 run.
It was a huge effort by Gobert, who was simply too much for Italy inside.
France joins traditional powerhouse Spain and host country Germany in the semifinals, with the tournment to be decided Sunday.
This is the first edition of EuroBasket since FIBA switched to an every-four-years format, after previously taking place every two years.
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