There must be something in the walls of Bercy Arena. A little over 24 hours after the French men’s basketball team punched its ticket to the gold medal game, the women’s team had Paris partying again, outlasting Belgium in an overtime barnburner that had more twists and turns than a Tour de France stage.
Thanks to some ferocious defense and rebounding, France appeared to have taken control down the stretch of regulation, Marine Fauthoux‘s free throws giving Les Bleus a six-point lead with just 56 seconds remaining. But Belgium refused to go quietly, and it will surprise no one that it was Emma Meesseman who brought them back. Julie Vanloo hit three free throws to make it a one-possession game again, and after a stop on the other end, the tournament’s leading scorer hit the biggest shot of her life, nailing a 3 from the top of the key with just 8.2 seconds to go.
It would’ve been easy for France to wilt, a sure spot in the final having slipped through its grasp. Instead, it simply got right back to what had built that lead in the first place: Les Bleus harassed Belgium all over the court on defense, and star Gabby Williams poured in nine of her team’s 15 points in the extra period to see through an 81-75 win.
Williams led her team with 18 points, adding four assists and three rebounds as she continues to fill up the box score in these Olympics. But it was on the other end of the court that France won this game, moving on despite shooting just 30% from the field and 7-of-31 from 3. You can afford to put up those sorts of numbers when you take 25 more shots than your opponent, a margin built by a 22-14 turnover edge and a 19-7 advantage on the offensive glass.
This has been France’s blueprint all tournament long, putting athleticism and length everywhere and causing enough chaos to overcome a lack of execution in the half court. And now it’s gotten them all the way to the gold medal game, erasing an early deficit that got as large as 15 points in the second quarter. France went on a 28-7 run between the end of the first half and the beginning of the second, holding Belgium to just two field goals with eight turnovers over nearly 12 minutes of game time.
Meesseman was tremendous once again for Belgium, with a game-high 19 points on 7-of-14 shooting with 14 rebounds and six assists. But she simply didn’t get enough help; Vanloo picked a terrible time to go ice cold, missing eight of her 10 3-point attempts. Belgium outshot France by a considerable margin, but it simply made too many mistakes over the second half and OT to survive.
All of which sets up a double date between France and the United States in the medal round, Les Bleus moving on to face Team USA for gold. Belgium, meanwhile, will take on Australia for bronze in search of its first-ever basketball medal.
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