World No.4 France defeated Luka Doncic's Slovenia, 103-95, on Saturday, however the win was overshadowed by controversial play in the final seconds, when French guard Sylvain Francisco drove in for a layup despite Slovenia already pulling back with the game out of hand.
Francisco had hugged Doncic as if to dribble out of clock, but after Doncic turned away, he went for an uncontested basket. Francisco finished with a team-high 32 points on -of-15 shooting, adding seven rebounds and five assists to guide France past Doncic's 39 points, nine assists and eight rebounds.
Later, Francisco explained what happened. Courtside Buzz on X posted his comments:
"I said I was sorry. I actually went to shake hands and go to the layup like I said to Luka. The only thing that really regret is just shaking hands. I should have told him not to play defense because … we’ve got a point differential, which is really important in EuroBasket.
"That's why it clicked in my head… at the end of the day, I would never do that, but, I take full responsibility for it."
In basketball, there is an unwritten rule that when games turn into blowouts, the team in the lead dribbles the clock out. In EuroBasket, however, point differential serves as a tiebreaker after head-to-head results, with teams separated by their scoring margins and total points when they finish with identical records.
Sylvain Francisco-led France leans on depth to defeat Luka Doncic's Slovenia
Beyond Sylvain Francisco's 32 points without a turnover, France got production from across the roster: Bilal Coulibaly had 13 points, Zaccharie Riascher and Alex Sarr each added 12, Guerschon Yabusele and Jaylen Hoard chipped in six apiece, and former NBA guard Elie Okobo amassed 14.
Luka Doncic, meanwhile, only had two players hit double figures: Edo Muric with 16 points and eight rebounds, and Klemen Prepelic with 15 points.
Slovenia, now 0-2, will clash against Belgium in its next outing. France will go for a third consecutive victory Sunday when it takes on Israel.