FIBA World Cup Day 16: Spain overpowers Argentina for gold, France takes home the bronze

Yahoo Sports Staff
Updated
Spain's Marc Gasol, third from left cheer with teammates during the award ceremony for the FIBA Basketball World Cup Final, at the Cadillac Arena in Beijing, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2019. Spain has captured its second World Cup championship, defeating Argentina 95-75 on Sunday to give Marc Gasol a rare double-title year. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

It was all Spain from start to finish in the gold medal game as Ricky Rubio led the way past Argentina 95-75. Rubio finished with a tournament high of 20 points and 7 rebounds with Marc Gasol adding 14 points. For the first time in the tournament, Argentina’s Luis Scola was scoreless in the first half and was held to only 8 points. Argentina cut it to 12 at one point but the game never really felt close and was a dominant performance from Spain. This is their second World Cup gold medal with the last one being in 2006.

Raptors center Marc Gasol walks away with an NBA title and a gold medal in the same year. Gasol was one of the five players named to the FIBA World Cup 2019 All-Star team, joining Rubio, Luis Scola (Argentina), Bogdan Bogdanovic (Serbia) and Evan Fournier (France). Rubio also earned MVP honors for his dominant tournament run.

In the bronze medal game, France edged out Australia 67-59 making it back-to-back World Cup bronze medals for France. Australia started the game strong opening up a 15-point lead in the second quarter but France made 9 3-pointer in the second half to come back. With Rudy Gobert struggling all game, Magic guard Evan Fournier stepped up and finished with 16 points. Fournier scored in double digits the entire tournament, averaging 20 points per game.

Sunday’s scores:

Spain 95, Argentina 75

France 67, Australia 59

Below we take a look at how other NBA players fared:

Denver Nuggets

Juancho Hernangomez (Spain): 11 points, 5 rebounds, 1 block, 1 assist

Charlotte Hornets

Nicolas Batum (France): 9 points, 3 rebounds, 1 block, 6 assists

Willy Hernangomez (Spain): 11 points, 3 rebounds, 3 blocks, 1 assist

Cleveland Cavaliers

Matthew Dellavedova (Australia): 4 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists

New York Knicks

Frank Ntilikina (France): 2 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists

Orlando Magic

Evan Fournier (France): 16 points, 5 rebounds

Phoenix Suns

Aron Baynes (Australia): 5 points, 4 rebounds

Ricky Rubio (Spain): 20 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists

San Antonio Spurs

Patty Mills (Australia): 15 points, 1 rebound, 2 blocks, 2 assists

Toronto Raptors

Marc Gasol (Spain): 14 points, 7 rebounds, 3 blocks, 7 assists

Utah Jazz

Rudy Gobert (France): 2 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist

Joe Ingles (Australia): 17 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists