After a dominating performance, France is the first team to reach the finals of the European Basketball Championship.
The former European champion defeated a totally disappointing surprising Poland 95:54 (34:18) in the semi-final in Berlin and is therefore the possible last opponent in Germany’s selection every night (20:30/RTL and MagentaSport) will face world champion Spain. Germany beat France in the opening match of the European Championship (76:63).
The French have reached the EuroBasket final for the fourth time after 1949 and 2011 (both silver) and 2013 (gold). 1963 silver medalist Poland will play for bronze on Sunday. After the coup d’état against defending champion Slovenia (90:87) in the semifinals, the outsider had no chance this time.
“We started aggressively and never let the pressure down,” said France coach Vincent Collet. “We just played our basketball,” said leading scorer Guerschon Yabusele (22 points).
Poland without a chance
Olympic silver medalists France dominated the ugly duel after a poor start, with only AJ Slaughter causing trouble – the Indian hitting his first three tries for Poland in front of 11,563 spectators.
On the other hand, Mateusz Ponitka, who was still the decisive man against the Slovenians with his triple double, did not find his way into the game at all. Poland had only 18 points at the break. The spectators saw a one-sided situation in the second half as well, and especially France Yabusele convinced with 22 points in just over 23 minutes.
SID
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