Superman Juancho Hernangomez 27 points proved to be the difference as Spain beat France to the Eurobasket 2022 gold medal. The encounter ended 88-76 with the ‘Rojas’ dictating the pace for most part of the clash, responded to every question asked by France.
Unhappy France coach after the game claimed “Heknew most of the things Spain was going to do, but we couldn’t respond”, admitting his team didn’t give themselves the “weapon” to change the game.
Aside Juancho shooting 9/11 from the field, his brother Willy Hernangomez In total, added 14 points and eight rebounds as Spain got its fourth Eurobasket gold, for a total of 14 Eurobasket medals including six silvers and four bronzes, plus two FIBA World Cup golds and four medals in the Olympics.
France’s Evan Fournier 23 points was the top scorer for France, which never got the lead in the game after the initial 1-0 score thanks to a free throw by Rudy Gobert.
Fournier was full of praise for Spain’s scintillating display.
“Spain played better from start to finish, they had a clear gameplan and we didn’t execute ours well enough, we never really had control of the game”,
Thomas Heurtel had 16 points and seven assists, while Guerschon Yabusele added 13 for the losing side.
The “Rojas” were up by 19 twice in the second quarter (35-16, 41-22) with Juancho scoring 18 points in just nine minutes of action and 6/7 threes and also by 21 points (47-26) after a layup by his brother Willy who had 10 points up to this point.
France didn’t give up and made it again a three-point game (63-57) after a three by Elie Okobo. But one more three by captain Rudy Fernandez made the score 66-57 at the end of the third and Spain kept its solid lead until the final buzzer.
