- Germany won their first-ever FIBA Basketball World Cup championship by defeating Serbia.
- Dennis Schroder led Germany with a game-high 28 points.
- Serbia’s comeback was thwarted by a costly turnover and failed three-point attempts.
By defeating an undermanned Serbia 83-77 in a battle of the two European heavyweights on Sunday in Manila, Germany captured their first-ever FIBA Basketball World Cup championship.
First all-European World Cup final since 2006, Germany relied on a 22-10 third-quarter run engineered by brothers Franz and Moritz Wagner to establish a cushion and never relinquish the lead.
Basketball World Cup
Dennis Schroder, the most valuable player in the tournament, led Germany with a game-high 28 points, much exceeding his 17.9 average per game, and he also added two rebounds and two assists.
Since Spain in 2006, Germany is the only team to have won the FIBA World Cup in its inaugural game. Serbia had another disappointment despite performing better than their 2019 quarterfinal exit after falling to the United States 129-92 in the championship game in Madrid, Spain, in 2014.
The two teams, who both have excellent teamwork and chemistry, swapped baskets to end the first half at 47 each. But late in the third quarter, Germany jumped out to a 12-point lead, and they never looked back.
With 39.5 seconds left in the game, Marko Guduric made two free throws, trimming Germany’s lead to two, 79-77. Serbia’s comeback was thwarted by a costly turnover and failed three-point attempts.
With 7:40 remaining in the opening frame, Ognjen Dobric, the starting guard for Serbia, had to be helped off the field due to an ankle injury. Power forward Borisa Simanic, who had surgery to remove a kidney in Manila after suffering a knock to the midriff against South Sudan in a preliminary game, was also absent from Serbia’s lineup.
