Pau Gasol added 17 points and 10 rebounds for Spain, which became the first repeat champion since Yugoslavia in 1997.
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.
Tony Parker led France with 26 points, but got little help and could not bring his team its first continental title.
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.
Boris Diaw had 12 points for France, Joakim Noah had 11 and eight rebounds and Nicolas Batum finished with 10 points.
In the bronze medal game, Aleksey Shved scored the last four points to give Russia a 72-68 victory over Macedonia.
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.
“It was not a game of skill, but of will and fight,” said Kirilenko, who had 18 points and seven rebounds for Russia.
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.
Russia had 43 rebounds to Macedonia’s 25, including 22 offensive boards that allowed Russia to score 30 second-chance points.
“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.
Russia won the tournament in 2007.
