National U19 team of Serbia failed to qualify for the finals of the World Cup in Riga, even after being a better team for more than 30 minutes in the semi-finals game against France, in the first half Serbia had +14 lead.

With better game in the last quarter, when they stopped our defensive rebounding and created second shot opportunities for themselves, France players managed to turn the game around, and that way to secure a place in the finals- 75:69 (13:23,20:16,20:18,22:12).

On Sunday at 15h, our team will play for bronze. The opponent will be Canada, who lost in the first semi-finals game against USA 86:92.

Serbia started off well. Our guys were ready tactically and mentally for this game. They found a way to stop the best France players. The first half was completely dominated by Mihajlo Muskic, who made 5 assists in this period.

Our guys had the lead whole time, because they  played really amazing, they did their job without a mistake. They even had +14 lead (27:13). Also, most of the time Serbia  had the double-digit lead.

Anyhow, France threatened at the end of the first half. They cut the lead down to -4 – 33:37. Belic, both with points and block in the last offense of  France, stopped that run of the opponent . So, at the halftime the score was 33:39. That type of finish was a sign that France was awaken, and that the game would have a different rhythm.

With three pointers from Skobalj and Stefanovic, Serbia managed to stop the France runs and stop them from getting the lead. But, for France this was probably the best shooting night on the competition in Latvia. New three pointer for France meant their first lead- 58:87 in 32nd minute. Time-out called by Serbia did not change a lot, France’s lead soon went up to +5- 64:59. Soon everything changed. France played with lot more self-confidence, which they found thanks to good rebounding. Now they were dictating the tempo, but after 5 back-to-back points from Jovic he restored hope for our team. But with points from Frisch, going into the last minute France had +8 lead (75:67), Wembanyama stopped Petrovic with a monster block.

The most efficient players in team of Serbia were Jovic and Stefanovic with 15 points each, other double-digit scorers were Petrovic and Skobalj with 10 points each.