U.S. defeated 113-111 by Germany in semis
MANILA, Philippines — There will be no gold medal for the U.S. 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 113111 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 sizable gap between the Americans and the rest of the world.
The U.S. has won the last four Olympic titles, but now it’s two straight World Cups with no gold for the winningest program on the planet.
“Terrible,” U.S. guard and captain Jalen Brunson said. “Plain and simple.”
Germany — the last unbeaten team left in the tournament at 7-0 — will play Serbia on Sunday for the World Cup title. Serbia beat Canada in the first semifinal, getting to its second World Cup final in the last three tournaments; it lost 129-92 to the U.S. in the 2014 championship game.
Canada will play the U.S. for bronze Sunday.
Obst hit the shot of the night, a 3-pointer with 1:15 left to put Germany up by four and just about snuff out a last-ditch U.S. rally. Germany led for 30 of the game’s 40 minutes, the U.S. led for about 41/2, and there was little question who was controlling play much of the way.
“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 played together, we stuck together when things got tough and we had players who made some huge plays. One more to go.”
The U.S., 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.