USA Women Overturn 14-Point Deficit to Win Fifth Straight FIBA World Cup
The United States have won a fifth consecutive FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup, beating France 97-79 in Berlin after trailing by 14 points in the first half.
Breanna Stewart finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds and was named tournament MVP for the second time. It is the twelfth World Cup title in American history.
France Lead, Then Collapse
France had been the more convincing side through the tournament, winning their five previous games by an average of 35.6 points with no margin closer than 22.
That form carried into the final. France led 31-17 early in the second quarter and were still ahead 45-43 at the interval, getting the shots they wanted and making them.
The third quarter settled it. The United States outscored France 30-12 in the period, switching defensively without losing anything in individual matchups and turning stops into scoring at the other end. Coach Kara Lawson, who has built a reputation as a defensive coach at Duke, watched her side force the misses and turnovers that had eluded them in the first half.
Stewart's double-double made her the first American to record 20 points and 10 rebounds in a World Cup final since Lisa Leslie in 1998.
"These (other) teams are always continuing to be better, but we're the standard," she said afterwards. "We always have been."
She expanded on the run itself. "USA Basketball has continued to show up and go for gold and to have done that however many times consecutively is an insane stat."
Young and Clark Contribute
Jackie Young added 18 points, six rebounds, five assists and four three-pointers. The win made her the first player to hold a FIBA Women's World Cup gold, Olympic gold in both 5x5 and 3x3, and WNBA, NCAA and high school state championships.
Kahleah Copper scored 15 and starting point guard Chelsea Gray had 12 points and five assists. Caitlin Clark, playing her first senior global championship, led the bench with 12 points and finished as the team's leading assist provider across the tournament at 5.3 per game.
Lawson singled out her captain. "It starts with Stewie, her leadership," she said. "Not just tonight. Not just today. Throughout the whole tournament. Just helping to guide the younger players, talk to them, just show them what it looks like to win."
A Streak Under Pressure
The Americans have now won 36 consecutive World Cup games, a run stretching back to the semi-finals of the 2006 tournament, when they lost to Russia. They have not lost a game in major international competition since, and have lost only one gold medal game in their history, in 1983.
This tournament tested them more than the scoreline of the final suggests. A three-point win over Italy in pool play was the closest any side had come to the United States in a group stage in 50 years, and the ten-point semi-final win over Spain was the tightest of the entire streak. Across the previous four medal-round games they had been winning by an average of 26 points.
France, who lost the Paris Olympic final to the same opponent by a single point, will take encouragement from a first half that suggested the gap is closing.
Attention now turns to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, where the United States will seek a ninth consecutive gold medal and extend their own record in team sport.
