2013 EuroBasket: France, Lithuania enter final

Boris Diaw of France goes for the basket during a FIBA Eurobasket championships semi-final basketball match Spain vs France

France and Lithuania entered the final of the 38th edition of the FIBA Europe championship for Men (also known as 2013 EuroBasket), which is being held in Slovenia.

In the first semi-final of the championship, Lithuania cruised past Croatia 77-62 to enter the final. Lithuania took the first quarter 24-19 while Croatia took the second quarter 18-16. At the half time break, Lithuania were leading by 3 points. After the break, Lithuania took the third quarter 21-8 to gain a huge lead going into the last quarter. Despite Croatia taking the last quarter 17-16, it couldn’t prevent Lithuania from entering the final.

Lithuania are in the EuroBasket final for the fifth time, and for the first time since they won the title in 2003. Bojan Bogdanovic netted 15 points for Croatia while Jonas Maciulis scored a game-high 23 points for Lithuania.

In the other semi-final, France outclassed defending champions Spain 75-72 to set a final date with Lithuania. Spain took the first and second quarter 18-14 and 16-6 to go in to the halftime break with a 14-point lead. But after the break, France came out strong and organized. They took the remaining two quarters 23-15 and 22-16 respectively to level the score and force the match into overtime.

In overtime, France scored 10 points against Spain’s 7 points to win the match and enter the final of the championship.

The final will be played on September 22, 2013. Croatia will fight for their third bronze medal after 1993 and 1995, with Spain.

The top six teams from 2013 EuroBasket – excluding Spain, as they have already qualified as hosts, will get their ticket to the 2014 FIBA World Cup. 24 European nations are participating at the ongoing event.