NBA champion Marc Gasol yesterday saved Spain as they battled back to beat Australia 95-88 after a second overtime period to reach the Basketball World Cup final.
Their opponents are to be Argentina, who defeated France — quarter-final winners over reigning two-time champions the US — in the other semi-final 80-66.
The thrilling semi-final was 71-71 at the end of regulation and the two sides could not be separated at the end of the first overtime.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Finally, the 2006 world champions jubilantly emerged after the Boomers appeared to run out of juice.
Gasol, the 34-year-old Toronto Raptors center, finished with 33 points after stepping up late in the breathtaking game.
Red-hot Patty Mills was unfortunate on the losing side, but led Australia with 34 points.
Australia, who had never gone beyond the quarter-finals in 11 previous attempts, had the whiff of revenge in their nostrils.
Spain edged the Boomers 89-88 in the bronze-medal match at the Rio 2016 Olympics and Australia had waited three long years to get their own back.
This semi-final was billed as an Australian offense against a Spanish defense.
San Antonio Spurs livewire Mills, one of the most-watched players of the World Cup, hit a three pointer midway through the second quarter to put Australia 27-22 in front.
The guard pulled off the same trick with 88 seconds left in the second quarter to give Australia a 37-32 advantage at the break, but Spain slashed the lead to four points going into the fourth quarter and then just two points with 3 minutes, 44 seconds left.
Spain were just one point behind with 28 seconds to run and they had the momentum. Gasol, nerves of steel, nailed two free throws to put Spain up 71-70.
Mills then made one free throw, but missed the other and the match was level 71-71 at the end of regulation.
The veteran Australian center Andrew Bogut was again loudly booed and jeered by locals in the arena aggrieved at a tweet he sent in July about Chinese champion swimmer Sun Yang.
Australians in the crowd, many of them dressed in the national colors, chanted his name in support.
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