By Rigas Dardalis/ dardalis@eurohoops.net
After a very close game which was decided from the free throws line, France got the 95-93 win over Lithuania and its first every World Cup medal, the bronze of the 2014 tournament. Nicolas Batum had one more stellar game with 27 points on 8/12 shots, just hours after his show against Serbia, scoring in total 62 points in less than 22 hours.
For Lithuania Jonas Valanciunas had 25 points and 9 rebounds, however the team of coach Kazlauskas couldn’t handle the come back of the French in the last quarter (31-22 partial score) and the game came down to the last second. After being fouled, as France wanted to avoid a buzzer beater three pointer which could have send the match in overtime, Jonas Maciulis made the first free throw, lost the second one in hopes of an offensive rebound, but the ball didn’t end up in Lithuanian hands and the game was over.
It was a great way to end the tournament for the European champions, who intend to be at full strengh next year in order to defend their title. As coach Vincent Collet said: “It will be great that we will have Tony Parker again in our team, however I don’t know yet what will happen with Noah”. Captain Boris Diaw adderd: “Our goal was to stay on top level as team France, not as players or individual names. We achieved that, despite our problems and absences”. As for tomorrow’s final, Joffrey Lauvergne, a former player of Partizan, supports Serbia against USA: “I am sure that (ed.note: his former teammate) Bodgan Bogdanovic will be great and that Serbia can beat them”.