Beijing, China—NBA champion Marc Gasol saved Spain as they battled back to beat Australia 95-88 after a second overtime period and reach the Basketball World Cup final on Friday.
They will face either France—quarterfinal winners over reigning two-time champions the United States—or Argentina in Sunday’s decider in Beijing.
The Spaniards had to overcome an 11-point deficit after trailing for most part of the game and the two extra periods. Spain took their first taste of the lead—since the score was pegged at 71-69—after two clutch free throws by Marc Gasol, who led all scorers with 31 points.
The same Gasol sent the game into a second extra period with two clutch free shots with four seconds left.
Spain is the highest-rated team in the semifinals after the favorites including the top-ranked US and Serbian teams were eliminated.
Regulation period ended at 71-all.
The 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup is the 18th tournament of the FIBA Basketball World Cup for men’s national basketball teams.
China is host of the tournament which was rescheduled from 2018 to 2019, becoming the first since 1967 that will not occur in the same year as the FIFA World Cup (which was held the previous year). The group stage is expanded from 24 to 32 teams.
The tournament will also act as qualification for the 2020 Summer Olympics, which will take the top two teams from each of the Americas and Europe, and the top team from each of Africa, Asia and Oceania, alongside the tournament’s host Japan.
Both Montenegro and the Czech Republic will each make their first appearance as independent nations after previously being part of Serbia and Montenegro and Czechoslovakia respectively, while Poland makes its return to the FIBA Basketball World Cup for the first time since 1967.
