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For the first time in the history of the Olympic Games, the two basketball tournaments will be decided by the same final: France vs USA.
The hosts are against the big favorite. The most desired match by the organizers and the biggest challenge in the history of French basketball.
The confirmation of this historical fact came with the victory of France in the women's semifinal. They beat Belgium 81-75 in overtime.
They will face the invincible United States, who are chasing their eighth consecutive gold medal and have now won 60 consecutive games. They have not lost since the 1992 semifinal.
The French women reached the final after a crazy match, with both sides taking big leads and the Belgians reacting to tie the game until the final seconds.
The Belgians started dominating (10-17), and took advantage of the locals' three-pointer blunder: 0/8 at the beginning. But soon came a very hard 19-1 to turn around the clash (29-18).
Belgium had been petrified until they came back to life in a sensational way. Now, the score was theirs: 2-18 to reach the break at 31-36.
And it would be extended after the intermission with another 0-10, so 31-46 and all the alarms lit in Paris Bercy. Gaby Williams extinguished the flames by hitting back with another 10-0 to even the score until the end.
Meesseman forces the extra time and Williams solves the problem
France dominated most of the last quarter. They went into the final moments with the lead, but Emma Meesseman, in one of her most ordinary games of the tournament, equalized with eight seconds left. Ayayi missed the winning triple and the game went to overtime (66-66).
That's when Williams put the national team and all of French basketball on her back. She scored nine of the 18 points in overtime.
Julie Vanloo had a three-pointer to equalize with 32 seconds left. She missed it. France will have its second final in its Olympics and this Sunday, they will face one of the most dominant teams in Olympic history.