Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — Breanna Stewart oozes confidence on the basketball court, especially when she puts on a USA Basketball jersey.
She continued an incredible run by helping the U.S. win its fifth consecutive women’s FIBA World Cup title Sunday with a <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/france-us-world-cup-score-e25ded41f7a4970a54e18909e6a6cdf7" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">97-79</a> victory over France. Stewart has been a part of the last four and now she’s tied with Sue Bird for the most in the tournament’s history.
“She is USA Basketball. When you think of the last 15 years, it’s Stewie,” U.S. coach Kara Lawson said. “We’re just really lucky to be a part of her era.”
Stewart won her second MVP award in the World Cup and averaged 12.8 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game while shooting 55.3% from the floor during this tournament. She had 22 points and 10 rebounds in the victory over France.
“I pride myself on being consistently great,” Stewart said. “That’s showing up when it’s the big moments, the small moments and all the moments in between. It’s an unrealistic confidence I have in myself.”
It isn’t just in the World Cup that Stewart excels. She has already won three Olympic gold medals, three WNBA titles and four NCAA championships — where she won the Most Outstanding Player each year.
She’s earned the respect of her all her teammates.
“Stewie’s been a tremendous leader through this whole process for us,” said Caitlin Clark, who was playing in her first World Cup. “Stewie’s a winner. That’s all she is. All she ever does is win. She’s been in so many of these moments, and when you have somebody like that on your team, it’s just a really comforting thing.”
Clark said how Stewart came into the weight room after the close three-point win over Italy and comforted some of the newcomers on the team, who were a little surprised by how tight that game had been.
“I just want you guys to know this is how it is. Don’t be intimidated by that. This is just how this goes. The games are going to be close. That doesn’t mean like you should feel defeated in any way,” Clark recalled. “I thought that was just a really good thing we needed to hear. Don’t let that bother you. These games are going to be hard.”
Stewart learned from some of the best leaders in Bird and Diana Taurasi. She’s just continued that tradition of success.
“I think sometimes you get used to seeing excellence all the time and you get complacent,” said Chelsea Gray. “You see the way she competes, the way she finishes the ball, the way she brings the team together. Things like this don’t happen by accident.”

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Breanna Stewart Continues Winning Tradition with Fourth World Cup Championship

5 Things I Like

As wild as it seems, we’ve already wrapped up the WNBA’s 2026 FIBA World Cup break. After a few weeks of international play, several WNBA stars will travel from Germany back to their teams, ready to ramp back up ahead of games kicking off Thursday, September 17. 
It’s a tight turnaround, but after some amazing play from multiple countries represented by quite a few WNBA players, the transition back to WNBA play should be easier. That’ll be especially true for the USA and French national teams, who finished first and second in the World Cup, respectively. 
Here, we’ll look at five things from the tournament that really stood out to me following the USA’s fifth-straight gold medal. 
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<h2>Valkyries Getting Back a Red-Hot Gabby Williams</h2>
When France was up by double digits to begin their gold medal game against the USA, it felt obvious that Gabby Williams would likely finish up as the tournament’s MVP if they managed actually to break the USA’s winning streak. Of course, Les Bleues were unable to hold on, so Williams’ initial heroics took a backseat. 
That doesn’t erase her impact from the entire tournament, though, where she averaged 18.7 points per game along with 2.8 steals and four assists. Most impressive about Williams’ run was how aggressive she was with the ball in her hands, showing off a finishing package at the rim and some stellar three-point shooting. She averaged 48.7 percent from deep in the tournament, which is a 14 percent increase from her average this season with the Valkyries.
If Williams can carry over that MVP-caliber play into the Valkyries’ final stretch of contests headed into the postseason, they become an even scarier team to have to face in the earlier rounds of the playoffs. 
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<h2>Defensive Stalwart Angel Reese</h2>
<div id="attachment_270577" style="width: 910px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-270577" class="wp-image-270577" src="https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/09/GettyImages-2294430014-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="600" srcset="https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/09/GettyImages-2294430014-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/09/GettyImages-2294430014-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/09/GettyImages-2294430014-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/09/GettyImages-2294430014-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/09/GettyImages-2294430014-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/09/GettyImages-2294430014-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" />Angel Reese #15 of the United States</div>
Team USA got a major youth injection this year, with players like Angel Reese, Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers, Kiki Iriafen, and Sonia Citron joining a core of star veterans. In the USA’s final against France, one player stood out as having made a big impact on their comeback, and that was Reese. 
She finished with just three points and three rebounds in their final game, but beyond the box score, Reese used her length to disrupt guards who couldn&#8217;t get their composure against her. She helped generate some bad looks for France and forced turnovers throughout the game. 
The Atlanta Dream need this version of Reese as they’re seeking to make a final seeding push in this final stretch of the WNBA season. She and Rhyne Howard looked poised to help make that happen with their excellent play in the clutch for Team USA in this tournament. 
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<h2>Las Vegas Saving the Day</h2>
Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young managed to help Team USA avoid painful losses twice in this tournament &#8211; once against Italy during the group phase, where Young led the way with 10 points and three assists, and again against France, where Young had 18 points and Gray finished up with 12. 
Young was especially dangerous in the USA’s final against France, managing to use her speed to get to her spots on the floor quite easily while looking confident as the team’s main facilitator throughout the game. It just felt like anytime you got the ball in the hands of her or Gray, good things were going to happen.  
Las Vegas continues to battle off the Dream, Indiana Fever, and potentially the New York Liberty for the 3rd seed ahead of the postseason. Games like the ones Young and Gray just had throughout this tournament should give the Aces some confidence in their ability to hold onto that seeding. 
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<h2>FIBA All-Star Lineup Features All WNBA Players</h2>
<div id="attachment_270578" style="width: 910px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-270578" class="wp-image-270578" src="https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/09/GettyImages-2295059526-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="569" srcset="https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/09/GettyImages-2295059526-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/09/GettyImages-2295059526-300x190.jpg 300w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/09/GettyImages-2295059526-1024x647.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/09/GettyImages-2295059526-768x485.jpg 768w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/09/GettyImages-2295059526-1536x971.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/09/GettyImages-2295059526-2048x1294.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" />Leonie Fiebich of Germany</div>
FIBA awarded Breanna Stewart the MVP of the women’s world cup tournament, while also placing her on their All-Star Five list from the entire tournament alongside Young, Williams, Iyana Martin, and Leonie Fiebich. 
Having two New York Liberty players on this list is pretty cool, especially with Fiebich having dominated elsewhere alongside Germany. Martin, who was selected by the Portland Fire seventh overall in this year’s draft, looked like a future weapon for Portland after averaging 17.5 points per game along with 4.2 assists and 2.2 steals for Spain. 
Spain, thanks in large part to her work, finished third in the tournament. It should get WNBA fans excited about her potential arrival in 2027 for Portland after spending this season training with Spain ahead of this tournament. 
This was a great showcase of how much international talent the league already rosters, and how much more talent is set to develop or come over to the WNBA in years to come. While Team USA seems like the obvious powerhouse to topple in future tournaments, strong cores are forming in Spain, Germany, France, and Belgium. 
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<h2>Final Push from Stewart in MVP race Thanks to the World Cup?</h2>
Stewart, as mentioned, finished up as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, and that felt pretty fitting once Williams and France had dropped their gold medal game against the USA. She and Sue Bird are now the only two players in FIBA women’s basketball history to have secured four titles, and she’s the first player ever to secure multiple MVPs in FIBA history. 
The Liberty star is in the mix amid a tight MVP race in the WNBA, where A’ja Wilson, Olivia Miles, Kelsey Mitchell, Caitlin Clark, and Stewart seem to be pacing the rest of the league. It’d be hard for Stewart to make a final push now to topple one of the current assumed leaders in that clubhouse, but her performance in this FIBA tournament feels like a turning point for her as it pertains to her upcoming work for New York and their postseason push. 
She finished up the tournament as Team USA’s leader in efficiency (18.8), points per game (12.8), and rebounds per game (7.3). The veteran knew what was needed to dominate a red-hot France team, and she provided a game-best 22 points on 70 percent shooting from the field to provide that pop. 
If she can maintain that level of efficiency and two-way dominance headed into the final stretch of WNBA games, she could make a push for a not-insignificant number of MVP votes.

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Five Things I Like: 2026 FIBA Women’s World Cup

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2026 FIBA Women's World Cup MVP: Breanna Stewart

BERLIN (AP) — Breanna Stewart had an American flag draped around her body as she soaked in the moment.
The U.S. captain delivered again and the Americans continued their domination of international play, winning a fifth straight women’s FIBA World Cup title with a 97-79 victory over France on Sunday.
The Americans have won 36 straight World Cup games, dating to the semifinals of the 2006 World Cup, where they lost to Russia.
“We are the standard,” said Stewart, who scored 22 points in the victory and earned MVP honors of the tournament for the second time. “USA Basketball has continued to show up and go for gold and to have done that however many times consecutively is an insane stat. We want to make sure that we continue to build on that standard and everybody else knows it.”
Despite the final score, this game wasn’t easy; the Americans faced their biggest deficit in the tournament since that loss to Russia when they were down 14 points in the first half to France. They calmly rallied behind Stewart and Jackie Young to get within two at halftime, with Caitlin Clark hitting a 3-pointer just before the buzzer.
“I think we felt really good about where we were at,” said Clark, who finished with 12 points. “I think France was 8 for 14 (from 3-point range). We dug ourself a hole, but we climbed out of it, and I felt like we were never rattled by anything.”
The U.S. dominated in the second half, starting the third quarter with a 11-2 run to go up 54-47. Stewart, who has now four World Cup titles to her name, had four points during the game-changing burst.
France was able to get within 55-51, but the Americans used a 16-3 spurt that included two unsportsmanlike fouls against France on the same play. The Americans were up 73-57 heading into the fourth quarter, and France never was able to close the gap.
“I’m really happy with the way that we let the rest of the world know that our goal is always gold,” Stewart said. “Just really proud.”
The U.S. improved to 9-0 in gold-medal games since finishing second in 1983 to the Soviet Union.
This was the second-youngest team the Americans have sent to a World Cup. There were many newcomers on the roster including Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers, who were playing for the national team for the first time. But it was the veterans who carried the team to the victory.
The Americans had looked more vulnerable in this tournament than at any time during their remarkable run. A <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/italy-us-world-cup-score-e23c02bce01fed6e54200747ad004c86" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">three-point win over Italy in pool play</a> was the closest a team has come to the U.S. in group stage in 50 years. The <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/spain-us-world-cup-score-26e02882a8eb0725e63e1d2c1356f30a" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">10-point victory over Spain</a> was the closest semifinal contest during the streak. The Americans had been winning by an average of 26 points over the past four medal-round games.
None of that matter in the end as the Americans finished the same way they had the previous four World Cup tournaments — as champions.
The loss nevertheless gave France its best finish ever in the event. The <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/us-france-rematch-world-cup-68209f835d3c7150a3558d3bf290cf8b" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">French were hoping for the top prize</a> after they came close against the U.S. in the 2024 Paris Olympic gold-medal game two years ago. That <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/2024-olympics-paris-basketball-0ef253dc9b9c6f4f7c872d25544fa0c6" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">one-point</a> loss still stung two years later.
Dominique Malonga scored 21 points and <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/france-gabby-williams-fiba-world-cup-b4667e30aa4fdb1c1ee674e563eedec6" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">Gabby Williams added 20 for France</a>.
“Of course we’re disappointed right now, but I think we’re showing little by little, France is a basketball country,” Williams said. “That was my goal, when I joined this team, was to change the culture. Obviously we have higher expectations, but we’ll get there.”
France got off to a strong start. The U.S. trailed 20-17 after the first quarter and the French scored the first 11 points of the second, capped by Williams’ 3-pointer, to take a 31-17 lead. But the Americans rallied and trailed 45-43 at the half on Clark’s 3 just before the buzzer.
Spain <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/spain-germany-score-basketball-world-cup-80c7b182737ca5276195283978a0978e" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">topped host Germany</a> to win the bronze medal

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US Wins Fifth Straight Women’s FIBA World Cup Title, Beating France 97-79

BERLIN (AP) — Breanna Stewart scored 16 points and Kahleah Copper added 13 to help the U.S. beat Spain 76-66 on Saturday, advancing to the championship game of the women’s FIBA World Cup.
The Americans will face <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/france-womens-cup-basketball-final-3ba544c6783aec82b173465b8a579225" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">France</a> in a rematch of the 2024 Paris Olympics gold medal game that the U.S. <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/2024-olympics-paris-basketball-0ef253dc9b9c6f4f7c872d25544fa0c6" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">won by a point</a>.
The U.S. has won 35 straight games in the World Cup going back to a loss to Russia in the semifinals in 2006. Now the Americans are one win away from a fifth consecutive tournament title. That would match the former Soviet Union for the most consecutive championships.
After cruising through their past two games, the U.S. struggled against Spain as the Americans couldn’t get any flow on offense.
The game was tied at 58 to start the fourth quarter before the Americans scored 12 of the first 14 points to take a 70-60 lead — their biggest of the game with 5:20 left.
Spain could only get within eight the rest of the way.
The U.S. spent a lot of the game at the foul line, making 27 of 35.
This was the first meeting in the World Cup between the teams since the U.S. topped Spain for the gold medal in the 2014 tournament. That was Stewart’s debut with the national team.
Spain started out hot early, scoring nine of the first 10 points of the game. That was the largest deficit the Americans had faced in this tournament, topping the three points they trailed Italy by in that <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/us-italy-world-cup-51d15901105edf74b1623ec21f3396c3" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">55-52</a> victory. It was 16-9 before the U.S. newcomers entered the game and helped close the period with a 12-2 run.
The Americans though couldn’t really extend that lead much in the second quarter. They couldn’t get into any offensive flow as Spain was playing a physical defense that resulted in foul after foul being called. The U.S. took 27 free throws in the first half, making 19 of them, while the team had 26 field-goal attempts total. The U.S. led 39-36 at the break.
Spain, which will play host Germany in the bronze medal game on Sunday, wouldn’t go away.

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U.S. Women Top Spain 76-66 to Reach the FIBA World Cup Final Against France

BERLIN (AP) — Napheesa Collier scored 19 points and <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">the U.S. routed Hungary</a> 108-56 to advance to the Semi-Finals of the women’s FIBA World Cup on Thursday.
The U.S. will play Spain on Saturday in the medal round. France will face host Germany in the other Semi-Final matchup.
The Americans have now won 34 consecutive games in the tournament dating to a loss to Russia in the 2006 World Cup Semi-Finals. The U.S. has made every medal round since 1983 when the format changed to have medal rounds.
It was a record-breaking performance for the U.S. The 108 points was the most by any team ever in a quarterfinal. The U.S. had 31 assists, again the most in this round.
“When that ball is moving, we want to get the best possible shot,” said Kahleah Copper, who had 10 points. “We want to make sure everybody gets involved. Everyone here on this roster, we know what they’re doing on their respective (WNBA) teams. But you come here, you sacrifice a little bit of that.”
Copper said the players were always looking to turn good scoring opportunities into great ones. The Americans did just that.
The U.S. was off and running early against Hungary, jumping out to a 36-12 lead after the first quarter. The Americans were constantly pounding the ball inside and converting turnovers into easy layups. <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/caitlin-clark-angel-reese-us-world-cup-7903a856991de79415cf5a090ca27cc4" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese</a> showed their growing chemistry on the court, finishing the quarter with a nifty pick and roll just before the buzzer. Collier had 10 points in the first 10 minutes.
The offense was sizzling early on as the Americans hit 20 of their first 26 shots (77%), including five of six 3-point attempts to race to a 50-18 lead with 6 minutes left in the first half. The Americans led 59-30 at the break — the highest scoring first half in team history in a knockout game at the event according to FIBA.
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The Americans got a little scare when Sonia Citron had to leave in the third quarter when she was hit in the nose by a Hungary player’s hand by accident. Citron returned to start the fourth quarter.
Clark finished with 10 points and nine assists, just missing out on her second double-double of the tournament.
The U.S. was also solid on defense. They contained Hungary’s top scorer Dorka Juhasz, who plays for the Minnesota Lynx. She came into the game averaging 15.3 points and 11 rebounds in the tournament. She missed her first seven shots and didn’t get her first basket until 2:26 was left in the half. She finished the game with two points on 1 of 12 shooting.
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Hungary came away with its best finish ever in the World Cup by reaching the quarterfinals for the first time. Hungary was fifth in the 1957 tournament but back then it was a round robin with no medal rounds.
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US Women Storm Past Hungary 108-56 to Reach FIBA World Cup Semi-Finals

BERLIN (AP) — Breanna Stewart had 19 points, seven rebounds and six assists to help the United States rout the Czech Republic 105-64 on Monday.
The Americans rebounded from their worst preliminary-round game in 50 years after edging Italy <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/us-italy-world-cup-51d15901105edf74b1623ec21f3396c3" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">55-52</a> on Sunday. Stewart set the tone early to make sure that wouldn’t happen again as the U.S. won its 33rd in a row in the tournament, going back to a semifinal loss to Russia in the 2006 World Cup.
Next up for the U.S. is the quarterfinal round on Thursday. They’ll face the winner of the Hungary vs. Japan game which takes place Tuesday.
Stewart had 11 points in the first 10 minutes as the U.S. jumped out to a 29-15 lead. The Americans had only 30 points in the first half against Italy. They kept it going in the second quarter behind Napheesa Collier, who had seven of her 12 points in the period.
The Americans extended the advantage to 57-33 at the half. They weren’t challenged in the second half by the Czechs as the lead ballooned to more than 40 points.
Stewart finished short of her World Cup career-high of 23 points set against China in 2018. She only played just over 16 minutes against the Czechs. Stewart sat in the fourth quarter giving her no chance at becoming only the second player in World Cup history to have a triple double. The Czech’s Erika Dobrovicova accomplished the feat in 1994 against Spain.
The Czech Republic finished winless in pool play. The Czechs were playing in their first World Cup since 2014. They won the silver medal when they hosted the event in 2010.
In <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/womens-basketball-world-cup-fiba-193274eff5c189ba75165cab995a8eac" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">other games</a> on Monday, China beat Italy; Germany topped Mali; Belgium beat Australia; Puerto Rico edged Turkey; France routed Nigeria; Spain beat Japan and Hungary slipped past Korea.

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Breanna Stewart Sparks US to 105-64 Rout of Czechia After a Scare vs Italy

BERLIN (AP) — The United States faced its stiffest challenge in nearly two decades in the women’s FIBA World Cup and escaped with a win over Italy thanks to a few timely baskets late and a key defensive play by Chelsea Gray.
Jackie Young scored 10 points to lead the struggling offense in the <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/italy-us-world-cup-score-e23c02bce01fed6e54200747ad004c86" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">55-52</a> win on Sunday. It was the fewest points the Americans had scored in a World Cup win since they beat Australia 42-38 in 1967.
“You have to be able to win different ways in this tournament because every team stylistically plays a little bit different,” U.S. coach Kara Lawson said. “You do have to be able to win when you don’t have your fastball. We didn’t have a fastball tonight, but we figured it out late and we’ll grow from it.”
The U.S. (2-0) has won 32 straight World Cup games dating to a loss to Russia in the 2006 semifinals. Only one team had come within single digits of the Americans during this run before Sunday, when Australia lost by eight points in 2010.
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“Obviously, Italy really kind of mucked up the game for us a little bit,” Breanna Stewart said. “It made it difficult for us to score. They are a tough team. Tons of respect to what they’ve done. And, just proud of the resiliency of this group.”
The world has been closing the gap on the U.S. The Americans pulled off their eighth consecutive Olympic gold medal in 2024, edging France <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/2024-olympics-paris-basketball-0ef253dc9b9c6f4f7c872d25544fa0c6" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">by one point</a> in the title game.
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“We’ve seen that through the tournament that every game feels like a dogfight,” Lawson said. “It’s really hard. On any given night, if you’re not prepared to play, you’ll lose. That’s awesome for our sport.”
The U.S. trailed 50-48 with 4:29 left before going on a 7-0 run. Stewart, who missed her first eight shots, scored her first basket of the game to put the Americans up 51-50. Young then hit a layup after Gray drew that offensive foul with 3:03 left.
“I thought that late charge Chelsea took was a big momentum changing play,” Lawson said. “It was an incredible winning play by Gray there.”
Gray’s jumper with 1:07 left made it a five-point game. Matilde Villa scored to get Italy back within three with less than a minute to go. The U.S. had a couple of chances to make it a two-possession lead but couldn’t convert.
Italy (1-1) had one last chance to tie it, but Cecilia Zandalasini’s 3-pointer was off at the buzzer.
Italy’s 2-3 zone defense caused the U.S. fits. The Americans couldn’t get into any rhythm and shot 29% from the field, including 1 for 12 from 3-point range. They missed a ton of layups too.
“I think we missed some shots. We missed some layups, some shots that we have made in the past,” Gray said.
The Americans were up early, leading 23-8 in what looked to be another blowout victory. Italy then switched to a zone defense and went on a 16-7 spurt to close the half down 30-24.
The Italians kept it going in the third quarter with an 11-2 run to go up 35-32. The Americans led 42-39 heading into the fourth.
Italy, which lost to the Americans by 34 in a tournament qualifier in March, wouldn’t go away and was up 50-48 in the fourth quarter before the Americans’ final push.
Zandalasini scored 14 points to lead Italy, which is making its first World Cup appearance since 1994. She apologized after the game for emotion she showed at the buzzer toward an official at the lack of a foul call.
“I would like to apologize for how I reacted in the end,” Zandalasini said. “It was a lot of emotions today, but I should have kept them inside of me a little better.”
In <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/womens-basketball-world-cup-fiba-102f213db5f749239742a4c63c1b8dcc" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">other games</a> on Sunday, China edged the Czech Republic in overtime, Australia topped Turkey and Belgium beat Puerto Rico.
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A Gritty Late Surge Lifts the US Past Italy 55-52 in its Toughest World Cup Test in Years

BERLIN (AP) — Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers made the most of their World Cup debuts to help the United States rout China in the opener of the tournament.
Clark had 14 points and 11 assists and Bueckers added another 14 points as the Americans <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/us-china-world-cup-score-9ff47b0711e2b4b5a36f3e051e568367" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">topped China</a> 94-61 on Friday.
It was the first of likely many times that Clark and Bueckers will play together in the U.S. backcourt over the next decade for the senior national team.
“It’s just organic. We know how to play well off of each other,” Bueckers said. “She draws so much defensive attention, so a lot of the defense is worried about her.”
Clark loved having so many offensive options, including Bueckers. Everywhere she turned to pass there was a teammate waiting to score.
“Obviously being around so many talented players, obviously our guards are incredible and our bigs too, but you know anybody I pass the ball to, it feels like they’re never going to miss a shot,” Clark said. “That’s one of my goals when I come into the game — to facilitate.”
Clark’s 11 assists were the most by a U.S. player since Dawn Staley had 12 against Russia in 1998, which tied her for the most ever with Teresa Edwards, who had a dozen against China in 1986.
The U.S. beat China for the gold medal in the 2022 World Cup, but that Chinese team didn’t have 7-foot-3 Zhang Ziyu. The 19-year-old <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/china-women-basketball-world-cup-zhang-1e7cac2fab443782db1df1ad256e7060" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">had her own impressive debut</a> in the World Cup, finishing with 13 points and hitting nine of her 10 free throws.
The towering Zhang had just two blocked shots, but made the Americans think twice about driving to the basket. Bueckers took a few foul line jumpers instead of attacking Zhang.
“I like to think I’m pretty smart. I thought that a layup over some 7-foot-3 center is probably not the best idea,” Bueckers said, smiling.
Clark agreed that Zhang presented a difficult challenge, but the U.S. frontcourt of Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier, Aliyah Boston and Angel Reese held their own, collecting a combined 24 rebounds.
“This was a different type of basketball game that I probably ever played in my entire life,” Clark said. “I’ve never played against a woman of that size. She obviously presented some challenges for us, but you gotta give our post players a lot of credit.”
Reese and Boston also were making their World Cup debut. In total, nine of the 12 players on the American roster, which is full of WNBA All-Stars, were playing in their first World Cup. They were able to keep the U.S. rolling.
The win was the 31st in a row for the Americans, who have a day off Saturday before facing Italy on Sunday and the Czech Republic on Monday.
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“It was great. Obviously the first one we got to shake off our rust,” Bueckers said. “Get back into game shape. Get back into game mode. And it’s our first time playing together as a team, as a unit. So we got a couple of days of practice, but there’s nothing like getting game reps, getting game experience together.”

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