In recent years, almost all of the names on Spain’s national team roster have changed. The expectations didn’t. Spain defeated France 88-76 on Sunday to win the EuroBasket title. Toronto Raptors player Juancho Hernangomez scored 27 points, his brother Willy Hernangomez added 14, and Willy Hernangomez was named the game’s MVP.
Spain won its fourth European title in its past six attempts, all under the guidance of coach Sergio Scariolo.
“It’s easy to say that we are extremely happy,” Scariolo said. “We got into this championship in eighth place in the power ranking and we managed to climb, step by step. It’s been amazing now to see we are above all those great teams.”
For Spain, Jaime Fernandez scored 13 points, while Lorenzo Brown scored 14 points and had 11 assists.
Evan Fournier led France, which also lost the gold-medal game to the United States at the Tokyo Olympics last year, with 23 points. Thomas Heurtel added 16 points, and Guerschon Yabusele contributed 13 points.
The Minnesota Timberwolves’ Rudy Gobert was limited to just six points on two field goal attempts for France.
“Spain played better from start to finish,” said Fournier, who plays with the New York Knicks. “They had a clear game plan and we did not execute ours well enough. … We never really had control of the game. They just played better, man, period.”
Spain was meant to use this summer to rebuild. Following a quarterfinal loss to the United States in the Tokyo Games, Pau and Marc Gasol, the program’s longtime leaders, announced their retirement from international competition.
After 16 years with the national team, Sergio Gonzalez also decided last summer that it was the proper time to part ways. Two additional veterans, Sergio Llull and Ricky Rubio, were unable to play due to injuries.
Simply put, the winning tradition persisted. Spain is currently the defending Basketball World Cup champion as well as the 2019 EuroBasket champion (won in China). In 10 of its previous 11 visits at EuroBasket, it has also won medals.