FRANCE caused the biggest shock of the FIBA Basketball World Cup in China after beating title holder the United States 89-79 to reach the semifinals of the 32-nation tournament in Dongguan on Wednesday night.

France will meet Argentina on Friday for a berth in Sunday’s final while 2006 champion Spain takes on Australia, which overpowered the Czech Republic 82-70 in the day’s other quarterfinal.

For the first time since 2006, the U.S. sent NBA players to a major international tournament and won’t win gold.

Evan Fournier scored 22 points, Rudy Gobert had 21 points and 16 rebounds and France rallied from a seven-point fourth-quarter deficit to pull off the upset.

The U.S. had won 58 consecutive tournament games in FIBA and Olympic competition, starting with the bronze-medal game at the 2006 world championships and continuing through every FIBA Americas, World Cup and Olympics event since. It was bidding to become the first nation to win three consecutive World Cups, after winning three straight Olympic golds in that span.

The best the Americans can do now in China is finish fifth, and they’re assured of their worst finish in a big tournament with NBA players since placing sixth at the 2002 world championships. They’re going home with a berth in the 2020 Olympics secured but no medal.

Donovan Mitchell scored 29 points for the U.S., all of them coming in the first three quarters. The Americans came up scoreless on six consecutive possessions down the stretch, the drought that allowed the French to take control of a back-and-forth game for the final time.

Nando De Colo scored 18 for France. The French held the U.S. to 4 for 15 shooting in the fourth quarter — and benefited from the Americans going 4 for 11 from the foul line in the final 10 minutes.

“We came here to win gold,” Gobert said. He said beating the Americans wasn’t the goal — winning gold is.

France was up 10 early in the second half. The U.S. went on a 31-14 run over the next 10 minutes to go up by seven. And then the French responded with a 15-2 run over the next five minutes, going up 82-76 on a long jumper by Frank Ntilikina with 2:05 left.

Mitchell had a chance to get the U.S. within two with about a minute left, driving against Gobert — but the Utah center read what the Utah guard was going to do perfectly, swatting the try away.

France had been 0-9 against the U.S. in major international play, most of those outcomes one-sided affairs. But the last meeting between the nations was only a 100-97 U.S. win at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics three years ago, and France returned three players — Gobert, De Colo and Batum.

None of the U.S. players who played that afternoon in Rio are on this year’s World Cup team.

(SD-Agencies)