GERMANY made basketball history by pulling off an inspiring 113-111 upset victory over five-time champion United States to advance to the final against Serbia in the FIBA World Cup 2023.

Andreas Obst hit the biggest shot of the game — a step back three-pointer — with a little over a minute left and Dennis Schroder added a pullup jumper against former Los Angeles Lakers teammate Austin Reaves with 40 seconds remaining to secure Germany’s biggest victory over the heavily-favored United States in the world’s biggest basketball stage.

The turning point in the closely-fought but high-scoring match before 11,011 fans at the SM Mall of Asia Arena came in the pivotal third quarter when the Germans outscored the Americans, 35-24, to turn a 59-60 deficit at halftime into a 94-84 lead after threegtan, quarters.

From there, Germany – the only remaining unbeaten team at 7-0 in the 32-team tournament which started two weeks ago — had the game well under control despite the United States’ last-ditch comeback.

Obst led Germany with 24 points on 6-of-11 shooting highlighted by four three-pointers, Franz Wagner added 22 points, five rebounds and two assists and Daniel Theis contributed 21 points and seven rebounds for the Germans, who are still looking for their first major basketball title since winning the 1993 FIBA EuroBasket championship over Russia.

And Schroder?

The 29-year-old guard of the Toronto Raptors, who leads Germany with an average of 17.9 points and 6.7 assists, was right on target with a near double-double of 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting, and nine assists in 28 minutes.

“One more to go. It’s a great win, but we’re not where we want to be yet. This group of players wants to win gold,” said Germany head coach Gordie Herbert after the game.

“The way we play together, we stuck together in different times when things got tough, and we had players who made some huge plays. We’ll enjoy this a little bit tonight and get ready for Sunday,” added Herbert.

Wagner, the hero in Germany’s 81-79 win over Latvia in the quarterfinal round last Wednesday, said the experience of playing together for a long time helped the team a lot.

“This is a super special group. For me, this is just the second summer with the national team, but for almost everybody else, they’ve been playing for the national team for multiple years, and got years of experience on this level.We grew from (FIBA EuroBasket 2022), playing together more times every summer definitely helps,”said Wagner,

NBA All Star Anthony Edwards of the Minnesota Timberwolves was the highest scorer for the Steve Kerr-mentored American team with 23 points on 10-of-17 shooting for 58 percent.

But Edwards also missed a step back 3-pointer that could have tied the score at 108-all with under two minutes left and turned the ball over with the Americans trailing 109-113 with 27 seconds left.

Reaves added 21 points, Mikal Bridges contributed 17 points and Jalen Brunson had 15 points for the United States,which was bidding to win the title after finishing only seventh in the 2019 edition in China.

“We weren’t ever able to make them (Germans) feel us defensively.We also made some mistakes. It sounds crazy, but the first offensive rebound on the game, you gotta box out. Right from the beginning, you gotta set the tone. And then Obst hit a three of that offensive rebound, and the game opened up for him. He was the key in the game,”said Kerr.

Kerr also singled out Schroder for Germany’s success.

“I give Dennis Schroder a ton of credit. He’s a really tough guard to handle, he’s quick, he can get the ball and penetrate constantly and that compromises your defense.”

In the end, Germany’s 113 points were the most points allowed by the United States in the Olympics or the World Cup since 1992 when NBA players started representing them.

The previous high for points allowed by the Americans was 110 in another setback — to Lithuania — earlier in the tournament.

The loss relegated the United States to a third-place battle against Canada, another team which boasts of NBA talents which lost to Serbia, 86-95, in the other semifinal Friday.

The scores:

Germany (113) – Obst 24, F. Wagner 22, Theis 21, Schroder 17, M. Wagner 10, Thiemann 10, Voigtmann 6, Bonga 3, Lo 0
United States (111) – Edwards 23, Reaves 21, Bridges 17, Brunson 15, Hart 9, Jackson Jr. 8, Haliburton 7, Banchero 6, Portis Jr. 5, Johnson 0
Quarterscores: 33-31, 59-60, 94-84, 113-111.