Argentina defeated France 80-66 in the second semifinal game in the FIBA Basketball World Cup in Beijing on Friday. Thanks to this victory, Argentina entered the final of the international basketball event again after winning gold in 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. Thirty-nine-year-old Luis Scola dropped 28 points, the highest on the court.

Argentina and France will compete for the championship in Beijing on Sunday.

French players, especially the five starters were definitely not in their best form in the first quarter. In offense, they always hesitated even left with open shot; in defense, the team was too slow and for several times, watched the opponents shoot open 3-pointers or finish easy layups.

Argentina by contrast, tried to drive up the speed of the game from the beginning, which you could see from the two coast-to-coast fast breaks by Scola at the beginning. In defense, the team kept intense ball pressure on French players, further interrupting the rhythm of the french offense.

In response, France soon sent the team's substitutes to the court to build defense first. With better energy and focus, France had the situation under control, trailing 21-18 in the first quarter.

Though France found their defense back, in offense the team continued to miss open shots in the second quarter, giving Argentina more reasons to close in. Their No. 1 scorer, Evan Fournier, was only four for 13 in the first half. Rudy Gobert who destroyed USA's paint in the quarterfinals, only got one point and six rebounds.

By contrast, though Argentina had no advantage in height or athleticism, it had a more aggressive attitude and better fighting spirit, leading in both points (39-32), rebounds (21-17) and field goal rate (48 percent-39 percent). Moreover, Argentina also achieved more in fast break (7-0) and points in the paint (26-16).

France put Andrew Albicy and Louis Labeyrie who performed the best in defense in the first half in their starting-lineup in the third quarter, apparently aiming to make defense a priority. Nonetheless, Argentina which only made two 3-pointers in the first half, suddenly exploded from downtown by burying three shots from outside, expanding their lead to double digits. When France put the team's offensive squad back on the court, they were looking at 12-point trail and increasingly aggressive Argentinian players.

Argentina finally began to cool down with their offense as they only scored five points in the first four minutes in the last quarter. Then interesting things happened. France put their five best defenders – Frank Ntilikina, Amath M'Baye, Nicolas Batum, Albicy, and Gobert – on the court while Argentina sent the five best offensive players – Facundo Campazzo, Gabriel Deck, Patricio Garino, Nicolas Laprovittola, and Scola – to the game for the last battle.

Nonetheless, in the following two minutes, France failed to prevent the opponents from scoring, watching the trail grow to 11 points (68-57). When they put Fournier back, 39-year-old Scola broke down their confidence with two straight 3-pointers made.

At the end of the game, Scola first walked round the court to enjoy all the cheers for his incredible performance and then he looked at Manu Ginobili who was sitting by the side of the court. They hugged each other as Scola, the last member of Argentina's gold generation, led the team back to the final competition for the top honor of basketball.