SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
Disappointing news for the United States in the basketball World Cup, with Friday’s 113-111 tight tussle against Germany a losing one, and leaves the red, white and blue with only the bronze medal to claim in Sunday’s game against Canada.
The Canadiens lost to Serbia, 95-86, Friday and it will be Serbia to face Germany for the gold medal on Sunday in the afternoon, night tournament closing doubleheader played in Manila, Philippines, at the Mall of Asia Arena.
As for the U.S., it faded to the third place game in FIBA’s biggest tournament, and Germany remains the only undefeated team. But Canada began talking it up after the semifinal setback, saying it was going to take the bronze over the Americans.
Talk is talk and it certainly might or might not bother the United States entry that was favored to carry away the championship trophy. But for the second time in a row, it was not to take place and in a contest for third place, it can’t be determined who will be more prepared.
Meanwhile, the USA-Germany clash had Germany control most of the play, as its Andreas Obst scored 24 points, Franz Wagner tallied 22, and as a unit it turned in more points than any other against a United States team that featured National Basketball Association players.
Said U.S.A. head coach Steve Kerr: “I regret saying this, but our team was very capable of winning a championship, but we lacked overall size and came up against some really good teams here. While we are still respectable on the court, other countries have really improved.”
True, for years the United States has been talking up foreign basketball programs closing the gap from a huge advantage to a sizeable gap. The U.S. has won the last two Olympic titles, but it’s now two straight World Cups with no gold for the winningest program on the planet.
“Terrible,” said United States point guard and captain Jalen Brunson, “plain and simple terrible.”
Brunson was the leading scorer for the Americans with 20 points, and he also handed out nine assists.
As for the finals, Serbia did defeat Germany in its first semifinal, getting to that level for the second time, but lost 129-92 to the United States in the 2014 championship game.
Obst probably hit the shot of the night, a 3-pointer with 1:15 left to put Germany ahead by four and just about snuff out a last-ditch U.S. rally. Germany led for 30 of the contest’s 40 minutes, the USA for about 4 1/2, and there was little question who was controlling play much of the way.
The U.S., down by 10 midway through the fourth quarter, nearly pulled off a comeback by getting to within one point on two separate occasions in the final minutes. But every shot it made, Germany matched and maintained the advantage in what was its first-ever final.
As the final buzzer neared, the Germans were jumping and hugging as time expired. One more to go now as they take on Serbia in the Sunday closer.
