Germany stun US 113-111 at basketball World Cup

MANILA, Philippines (AP):

There will be no gold medal for the US at this World Cup. And for the second consecutive time in FIBA’s biggest tournament, there might not be any medal at all for the Americans.

Instead, it’s Germany on the cusp of a world title.

Andreas Obst scored 24 points, Franz Wagner added 22 and Germany scored more points than any team ever has against a USA Basketball team featuring NBA players – earning a 113-111 win in the World Cup semifinals on Friday night.

“This team is very worthy of winning a championship,” U.S. coach Steve Kerr said. “And we just didn’t get it done.”

No, it didn’t, and now questions will fly once again. USA Basketball has been talking for years about how the continuity of top international teams has closed what was once a sizeable gap between the Americans and the rest of the world. The US have won the last four Olympic titles, but now it’s two straight World Cups with no gold for the winningest programme on the planet.

“Terrible,” US guard and captain Jalen Brunson said. “Plain and simple.”

Germany – the last unbeaten team left in the tournament at 7-0 – will play Serbia tomorrow for the World Cup title. Serbia beat Canada in the first semifinal, getting to their second World Cup final in the last three tournaments; they lost 129-92 to the US in the 2014 championship game.

Canada will play the US for bronze tomorrow.

Obst hit the shot of the night, a three-pointer with 1:15 left to put Germany up by four and just about snuff out a last-ditch US rally. Germany led for 30 of the game’s 40 minutes and there was little question who was controlling play much of the way.

‘A SPECIAL GROUP’

“It’s a special group,” Germany coach Gordie Herbert said after his team made the World Cup final for the first time. “The way we played, the way we stuck together when things got tough and we had players who made some huge plays. One more to go.”

The US, down by 10 midway through the fourth, nearly pulled off a comeback, getting within one point on two separate occasions in the final minutes. But the Americans never got the lead, and it was the Germans jumping and hugging as time expired.

“We knew the task at hand, and that was to go win,” US guard Austin Reaves said. “And we didn’t do that.”

Anthony Edwards scored 23 points for the US (5-2), who got 21 from Reaves, 17 from Mikal Bridges and 15 from Brunson. The Americans shot 58 per cent, but let Germany shoot 58 per cent as well, and that was the ultimate undoing.

“If you give up 113 points in a 40-minute game, you’re not going to win many of those,” Reaves said.

The previous high for points allowed by a US men’s team in the Olympics or World Cup in the era when NBA players could be used – going back to 1992 – was 110. And that was earlier in this tournament, against Lithuania, which also was a US loss. That loss didn’t doom the Americans’ gold-medal hopes. This one did.