Germany completed a sweep of the 2023 FIBA World Cup after taking down the mighty Serbia squad, 83-77, in the finals to claim the Naismith Trophy on Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
After a neck-and-neck affair in the first half as it ended at 47-all, Serbia was trailing 55-53 before Germany made a 9-0 run in the third period to widen the gap, 64-53, capped by Mo Wagner's layup. In the said quarter alone, Germany limited Serbia to just 10 points against their 22-point output to claim the 69-57 lead at the end of the frame.
Serbia attempted for a comeback in the fourth period and cut its deficit to four, 73-69, with less than five minutes left. Johannes Voigtmann drilled a triple to give Germany additional cushion. Franz Vagner's free throws put Germany at 78-69 but Aleksa Avramovic sank a trey for the Serbians to inch closer.
Voigtmann's foul on Avramovic put the latter at the line where he sank all three charities to cut the deficit to three, 78-75, with 1:21 remaining.
A foul by Avramovic brought Schroder on the line where he split his free throws. Franz Wagner was called for a foul with 39 seconds left and sent Marko Guduric to the line and sank two freebies to put Serbia two points away, 79-77.
Schroder, however, drove to the basket and gave Germany a four-point advantage.
Guduric was called for a foul, allowing Schroder to sink two free throws to seal the victory for Germany as Avramovic missed his final three-point attempt.
Schroder registered 28 points while Franz Wagner had 19 points.
Avramovic led Serbia with 21 points while Bogdan Bogdanovic had 17 points.
This is Germany's first World Cup finals appearance and first World Cup title.
En route to their first title, Germany defeated eight teams which include Japan, Australia, Finland, Georgia, and Slovenia in the two rounds of the group phase, Latvia in the quarterfinals, the United States in the semifinals, and Serbia in the finals.
Serbia, meanwhile, swept its first round matches here in the Philippines against China, Puerto Rico, and South Sudan. In the second round, Serbia fell to Italy but bounced back against Dominican Republic. The Serbians defeated Lithuania in the quarterfinals and Canada in the semifinals.
Earlier, Canada claimed the bronze medal after taking down Team USA in overtime, 127-118.
Germany and Serbia also directly qualified to the 2024 Paris Olympics as the top two European teams from the World Cup.