Basketball - France knock holders US out of World Cup medal rounds

BEIJING: France caused the biggest shock of the basketball World Cup in China after beating holders the United States 89-79 to reach the semi-finals of the 32-nation tournament on Wednesday.

The Americans were beaten in a last-eight clash by the former Yugoslavia in that tournament and they next face Serbia, who were billed as their most likely rival in a gold-medal clash in this year's event. An aggressive French defence forced a flurry of first-half turnovers and having engineered a 45-39 halftime lead, they surged 51-41 early in the third quarter thanks to inspired performances from Evan Fournier and Rudy Gobert.As the duo began to tire, Team USA hit back thanks to a one-man show from Donovan Mitchell, who netted 14 of his game-high 29 points in the third quarter to give the 2014 champions a 66-63 lead ahead of the final 10 minutes.

Trailing 72-65, France went on a 17-4 run and cool free-throw shooting in the last 90 seconds of the clash gave them a memorable win as Gobert finished with 21 points and 16 rebounds while Fournier netted 22 points.

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