The French national basketball team advanced to their second consecutive Paris 2024 Olympics semifinal on Tuesday, defeating Canada 82-73 in the quarterfinals.
Despite their impressive performance thus far in the campaign, Canada entered this game undefeated and without an answer for the hosts and their boisterous home crowd.
Victor Wembanyama was relegated to a supporting position by Canada’s game plan, scoring just seven points; nevertheless, this gave Guerschon Yabusele and Isaia Cordinier the opportunity to shine, scoring 22 and 20 points, respectively.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led Canada with 27 points as they battled back to within five points with just four minutes remaining. France had a great start, jumping out to a 19-point lead at the beginning of the second half.
However, the rally quickly faltered as Evan Fournier scored seven points in a row to send France sailing into the next round where they would look to improve upon their Tokyo Olympics silver medal.
Canada hasn’t been to the Olympic final four since 1984, and they will now take on Germany in an attempt to compete in the gold medal game.
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