Nothing was easy about France’s 67-59 win over Australia to secure the bronze medal at the FIBA World Cup. The team shot worse than 30 percent in the first half and scored only 21 points — trailing Australia by nine at the break.
The team rallied and will head home with the hardware, matching its bronze medal from the 2014 World Cup.
For the program, France continued to establish itself as one of the best teams in the world as they transition from their emergent generation to a new group of players. The bronze medal also assured France would get to next year’s Olympics without participating in a qualifying tournament as they had to in 2012.