FRA/SRB - Rivalry renewed

ANTIBES (EuroBasket/FIBA Basketball World Cup) - One couldn't help but walk down memory lane before, during and after Thursday night's friendly encounter between France and Serbia in Antibes.

The two sides are warming up for the EuroBasket in Slovenia, which tips off 4 September.

The tournament will serve as a qualifying event for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

In 2011, the same two teams met in a decisive first round game, one for Group B supremacy, and France won in overtime.

Silver-medal winners two years before at the EuroBasket in Poland and coming off an impressive fourth-place finish at the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey, the Serbians had been playing like a well-oiled machine in Group B.

They had looked like a side that was headed back to the podium, yet the defeat to France knocked them off the rails.

Serbia had an opportunity to win at the end of overtime in the 2011 clash but one of their star players, Dusko Savanovic, missed a wide-open shot under the basket.

France held on for a 97-96 overtime triumph.

France went on to reach the Final before falling to Spain, yet qualified for the London Games and played at the Olympics for the first time since 2000.

Serbia unravelled and finished eighth, missing out on the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

While the stakes weren't nearly as high as a couple of years ago, Serbia and France waged an intense battle in Antibes on Thursday and the hosts scraped a 78-74 overtime win.

Serbia trailed 38-25 at half-time but stormed back to take a 61-56 advantage with five minutes remaining.

The French held their nerve with Tony Parker excelling down the stretch.

Joffrey Lauvergne, whose national team career is taking off this summer after playing for Partizan Belgrade's Adriatic League-winning side in 2012-13, had 13 points and 11 rebounds.

Parker poured in a team-high 14 points for France while Alexis Ajinca and Mickael Gelabale had 13 points apiece for Les Bleues.

Nenad Krstic led a balanced Serbia attack with 14 points.

France won despite turning the ball over 23 times, with Lauvergne, Boris Diaw and Alexis Ajinca guilty of four each. Gelabale had three of the miscues.

"It was a real game of European Championship level," France coach Vincent Collet said.

"In the second half, we had no rhythm, the Serbs came back and we had to go to the end of this amazing game.

"Tony was much more aggressive late in the game and that made the difference, and Joffrey had the rebounds.

"We turned a corner in patience in attack. Now, there are still a lot of adjustments to make, including the 23 balls lost."

Serbia coach Dusan Ivkovic won't care about the defeat as it has no bearings on the EuroBasket, although he will know that his team could have built some confidence with a victory on French soil.

Even so, Serbia can still be encouraged with their second-half display.

"We started well," he said, "but we had an unexplained decline in the second quarter, when we only scored 11 points and made a lot of mistakes.

"However, the team was able to come back to win the third quarter by 15 points with 26 points scored.

"In the second half we were definitely the better team, we dominated, had a width in attack and good organization of the game."

The key for Serbia will be to find more consistency in their play for 40 minutes, and to eradicate their mistakes.

"The game surely would have been ours if we'd played smarter on defense in the final stages of the game, and gotten to the free-throw line," Ivkovic said.

"It was a good test, because we played in a great atmosphere at the opening of the new hall in Antibes, who after 13 years have become a first division team.

"You need to learn from this game and get ready for tomorrow's (Friday's) match against a good Georgia national team."

FIBA