The revenge battle of the French brothers for Victor Wembanyama was a great success.
The French U-19 basketball team won the FIBA U-19 Hungary Basketball World Cup 2023 semifinal against the United States held at the Phoenix Arena in Debrecen, Hungary on the 2nd (Korean time), winning 89-86 after a close match, 2nd inning. Successfully advanced to the finals.
France reached the final two years ago for the first time with Wembanyama at the forefront. However, in the bloody battle against the United States, they suffered a bitter come-from-behind defeat and were unable to win the championship in the end. Wembanyama was the first overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, but didn’t kiss the trophy at the U-19 level.
The revenge battle of the French brothers for Victor Wembanyama was a great success. Photo = Courtesy of FIBAHowever, two years later, Wembanyama’s younger brothers eventually made America cry. Centered around Melvin Azinsha (17 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists) who succeeded in fantastic clutch shooting at every critical moment, Alexandre Boudi (16 points, 2 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals), Zachary Perrin (18 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists) and Zachary Richa The performance of Ser (13 points, 3 rebounds) shone.
France will meet the winners of the semi-finals between Spain and Turquoise in the final. We didn’t meet all of them at the Euro U-18 Championship a year ago. Instead, they faced Spain in the group stage of this tournament and lost 69-88.
Meanwhile, the United States was eliminated in the semifinals for the first time in six years since the 2017 Egyptian tournament. At that time, they lost to Canada in the semifinals and defeated Spain in the third/fourth place match.
It is the first time in 12 years since the 2011 Latvia tournament that the United States lost to Europe in the U-19 tournament. At that time, the United States lost to Croatia in the second round and to Russia in the quarterfinals.
