FIBA World Cup: Canada to play against USA for Bronze

Sep 9: There will be no gold medal for the U.S. at this World Cup. And for the second consecutive time in FIBA’s biggest tournament, there might not be any medal at all for the Americans.

Instead, it’s Germany on the cusp of a world title. Germany defeated the USA by the score of 113-111 in the World Cup semifinals on Friday night.

“This team is very worthy of winning a championship,” U.S. coach Steve Kerr said. “And we just didn’t get it done.”

The U.S. has won the last four Olympic titles, but now it’s two straight World Cups with no gold for the winningest program on the planet.

Germany — the last unbeaten team left in the tournament at 7-0 — will play Serbia for the World Cup title. Serbia beat Canada in the first semifinal, getting to its second World Cup final in the last three tournaments; it lost 129-92 to the U.S. in the 2014 championship game.

Canada will play the U.S. for bronze this coming Sunday.

“It’s a special group,” Germany coach Gordie Herbert said after his team made the World Cup final for the first time. “The way we played, the way we played together, we stuck together when things got tough and we had players who made some huge plays. One more to go.”