FRA/ESP - Gelabale, Albicy spark famous victory

IZMIR (FIBA World Championship) – France has shown that practice match form counts for little with an amazing 72-66 upset victory over defending champion Spain in Izmir.

The Spanish defence had France in handcuffs for much of the first half, but a late second quarter rally led by Mickael Gelabale and 20 year old debutante Andrew Albicy (13 points) set up Les Bleus for a most improbable victory.
 
Gelabale was superb, finishing with 16 points and 6 rebounds and hitting a brace of big shots. Where he left off, Nicolas Batum (14 points) stepped up in the second half, scoring 12 of his 14 points including five straight in the final quarter to give France a lead the Spaniards could not reel in.  After the game Batum visited with FIBATV.Com.
 
For Spain, Juan-Carlos Navarro hit a string of late shots to finish with 17 points, while Rudy Fernandez scored 13 but cost his team with a technical foul in the last quarter and some key defensive lapses.
 
For much of the first half the story was defence. Spain led 10-4 after nearly seven minutes, 18-9 at quarter time and 23-13 with 5:30 to play in the second period.
 
At that point Gelabale stepped up, hitting a big three to revive the French crowd and spark a 14-5 to finish the quarter. Gelabale would hit two more baskets in the run, which also included a three-pointer from Albicy and an early candidate for dunk of the tournament from Batum.
 
The 178cm Albicy, a star at last year’s FIBA U19 World Championship, was crucial in the run, nullifying the speed of Ricky Rubio and allowing his team to get ball movement that wasn’t possible in the first 15 minutes. The charge Albicy drew on Rubio in the last minute sealed the contest and completed his clear victory at the point guard position.
 
When Spain opened the third quarter with a 7-0 run over the first 4:40 it appeared the French resistance had been quelled. But Les Bleus surged again and a three point buzzer beater from Batum brought them within 43-44 three quarter time, setting the scene for their final quarter heroics.

France faces Lebanon tomorrow at 6:30pm, while Spain play New Zealand at 9pm.

France Quotes‏

Collet: It was a chance for us to match with the last champion of the tournament,Spain.With the win that we took from this gam we gained our confidence back

Bokolo: At the beginning we were efficient just in defensive end.But in the second half we gained an impact in both sides of the court.I’m happy because we win over a though team like Spain

Spain Quotes‏

Garbajosa:We did not perform well and we could not find a way to drill France’s defense.This is just the first game.I think that we will get beter.

Scariolo: Congrats to France coach.We were effective at the beginning of the game.But, in further parts of the game we could not attack on France’s defense.France did pretty good job on defence.We lost our stability in the game as well as the match

FIBA

Paulo Kennedy

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