By Mindaugas Kulbis, AP,Spain's Pau Gasol , right, posting up France's Joakim Noah, tallied 17 points and 10 rebounds in the European Basketball Championship finals.Serge Ibaka had five blocks in the second quarter as Spain built a 10-point lead to pull away, and never trailed the rest of the way. France came within six in the third but a 7-0 run keyed by a 3-pointer from Navarro restored Spain's double-digit lead.
Navarro's performance came on the heels of a 35-point effort in the semifinal win over Macedonia and earned him the Most Valuable Player honors for the tournament.
The shooting guard also had five assists to lead a balanced Spanish effort. Guard Jose Calderon added 17 points, and Rudy Fernandez had 14. Marc Gasol had 11.
Spain took control of the game early and never allowed France to really come close. With 10 blocked shots and 10 steals — four of them by Calderon — Spain scored 23 points off France's 15 turnovers.
The shooting guard sank a short jumper with 27 seconds left and then made two free throws after Macedonia's Damjan Stojanovski missed an open short jumper with seven seconds left. Andrei Kirilenko grabbed the rebound and Shved was fouled to make the free throws.
Macedonia has been the surprise team of the tournament and came close to pulling off another upset. But Russia's deeper bench and dominance on the boards made the difference.
"I guess this is the end of the fairy tale," Macedonia center Predrag Samardziski said. "We fought hard the whole tournament and we wanted the bronze, but it didn't happen. Now, everybody knows us. We are a small country but they have to fight hard to beat us."
American-born guard Bo McCalebb led Macedonia with 22 points. McCalebb fed Stojanovski on Macedonia's last missed play and looked deeply disappointed at the final buzzer.
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