Arizona’s Kylan Boswell had 11 points and five steals but it wasn’t enough to keep USA from a history-making 89-86 loss to France in the semifinals of the FIBA U19 World Cup on Saturday at Debrecen, Hungary.
A USA Basketball team had never previously lost to France in a youth world event, including when the Americans edged France and future NBA No. 1 draft pick Victor Wembanyama in the 2021 U19 finals.
But this time, USA allowed France to move and shoot the ball efficiently. France shot 52.5% from the field and hit 8 of 16 3-pointers, recording assists on 22 of its 31 baskets.
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“We did an amazing job,” said France’s Zacharie Perrin, a former Illinois forward who had 18 points nine rebounds, according to FIBA. “I don’t know how to explain this. I am so proud of our guys. We did a perfect job today.”
The Americans shot 44.4% but had 16 turnovers and committed 21 fouls, including a technical on Villanova’s Mark Armstrong for appearing to yell at the France bench after hitting a layup that gave USA a 78-74 lead.
After the technical, France went on a 14-3 run to take a 86-81 lead with 2 minutes left and held on from there.
“This is disappointing obviously,” Colorado coach Tad Boyle, the USA’s U19 head coach, said in a USA Basketball statement. “We knew France was a good team. We had three keys to the game and we did one of them. We needed to defend, rebound and take care of the ball at a high level to win this game and we just didn’t do it. We had turnovers at some really inopportune times down the stretch that cost us the game.”
Boswell, who hit a 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 73, was on the floor during the Americans’ final push. With France ahead 88-83 and 27 seconds remaining, Boswell helped steal the ball from France’s Alexandre Bouzidi but Bouzidi grabbed it back two seconds later and France hung on the rest of the way.
A free throw gave France an 89-83 lead until the final second, when USA’s Tre Johnson threw in a meaningless 3-pointer just before the buzzer.
Boswell collected his 11 points while shooting 4 for 8 from the field, making 2 of 3 3-pointers and hitting 1 of 2 free throws. He added one rebound and two assists to his five steals while turning the ball over three times.
USA, which had won five of the previous seven FIBA U19 Basketball World Cups, will now play Turkey for the bronze medal on Sunday at 8:30 a.m. France will face Spain, an 83-51 winner over Turkey in the other semifinal, in the championship game at 11 a.m.
“We have less than 24 hours to get our minds right,” Boyle said. “We’ve got to get mentally and emotionally ready for (Sunday) because we will be playing a really good team.”
Earlier Saturday, UA guard Filip Borovicanin had nine points on 4-for-8 shooting in Serbia’s 99-73 win over Japan in a consolation bracket game. Borovicanin also had two rebounds, two assists and two steals with no turnovers.
Serbia (5-1) will finish U19 World Cup play against Argentina (3-3) at 6 a.m. Sunday in a game to decide fifth place.
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