Germany secured their first-ever International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Men’s Basketball World Cup Championship after an impressive 83-77 victory against Serbia. Co-hosted by Manila, Jakarta, and Okinawa, the finalists battled it out on September 11 at the Mall of Asia Arena in front of over 12,000 spectators.
Hoping to win their first FIBA World Cup title, Germany and Serbia fought tooth and nail to make history and bring home the crown. The Germans were undefeated heading into the game after facing tough opponents like the fan-favorite Team USA and the Luka Doncic-led Slovenia. Meanwhile, Serbia dominated the tournament even without NBA Finals MVP Nikola Jokic and suffered only a single loss to Italy.
Serbia started the finals with a bang and scored five straight points behind a three-pointer by Stefan Jovic and a dunk by Nikola Jovic. Led by Dennis Shroder, Germany made buckets of their own and maintained a close gap throughout the quarter. Serbia held the lead for most of the quarter and ended with a score of 30-27.
Heading into the second quarter, the Eagles once again started strong and brought Serbia’s lead back up to five. With two big threes from Bogdan Bogdanovic, the Serbians had the momentum, but Germany's Franz Wagner scored nine points and equalized the game at 47-47 at the end of the second quarter.
During the third quarter, after a back-and-forth of buckets, Germany blitzed into a 9-0 run following baskets by Shroder, Bonga, and Wagner and ended the quarter with 12 points in their favor.
With the championship on the line, Serbia’s Aleksa Avramovic would not back down and scored ten more points to reduce their opposition's lead to four with 4:50 minutes left in the 4th quarter.
Johannes Voigtmann answered back with his own three, as Wagner sank two free throws, raising Germany's lead back up to nine. Determined, Avramovic buried one more three-pointer and was fouled on another for three points to keep the game within three. The Serbians missed a chance to tie the game in a wide-open three in the following play.
Shroder led the game with 28 points to seal the deal for Deutschland with a perfect 8-0 tournament. Wagner ended the game with 19 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 steals to be named the TCL Player of the Game. Avramovic topped the Serbian team with 21 points, 1 rebound, and 2 assists.
Germany’s Team Captain Shroder was awarded the tournament MVP after averaging 19.1 points, 6.1 assists, 2.0 rebounds, and 1.4 steals per game for the tournament.