By DOUG FEINBERG AP Basketball Writer
BERLIN (AP) — The names may change, but the results are the same for the U.S. women’s basketball team — another FIBA World Cup title.
The Americans’ fifth championship in a row came Sunday in a 97-79 victory over France. It wasn’t as easy as the previous four, with the U.S. showing some vulnerability throughout the tournament.
A three-point win over Italy in group play gave other teams hope. A tight game against Spain in the semifinals also raised some eyebrows.
France held a 14-point first-half lead in the title game — the biggest deficit the Americans had faced since their last loss in a major competition when Russia beat them in the semifinals of the 2006 World Cup.
But the U.S. was calm and not worried. The game ended the same way the previous 35 had for the Americans, with a victory.
“We are the standard,” said Breanna Stewart, who scored 22 points and earned MVP honors of the tournament for a record 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.”
Missed opportunity for the U.S. challengers
This might have been the best chance for someone to beat the U.S.. They were missing four-time MVP A’ja Wilson and the roster was full of newcomers, including Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers. Kara Lawson was coaching and getting better acquainted with the second-youngest American squad in the past 40-plus years.
Clark, Reese and Bueckers gained valuable experience and will be integral for the U.S. to continue its success over the next decade.
France, which lost to the U.S. by a point in the Paris Olympics gold medal game two years ago, thought it could be the team to end the Americans’ two decades of dominance. For nearly a half they had it going.
There was no panic though on the U.S. side, thanks in part to the ultimate winner Stewart, who has two World Cup MVPs now — the first player to ever accomplish that. She’s only 32 years old and has four World Cup championships on her resume.
The Americans calmly rallied within two points at the half as Clark’s 3-pointer just before the buzzer capped the rally. The U.S. then put it away in the third quarter.
“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.”
U.S. will be tested again at 2028 Olympics
With Stewart and Wilson most likely leading the way at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, teams will be hard-pressed to end this run by the Americans. Besides their World Cup success, they also haven’t lost an Olympic game in 34 years.
While the U.S. will be favored to capture gold at home, there are teams on the rise that will challenge them.
France has a really good core led by Gabby Williams, Marine Johannes and Dominique Malonga. The French looked dominant throughout the World Cup blowing past opponents by an average of 35.6 points. They kept that momentum going at the start against the U.S. before falling short once again.
Still, the silver medal finish was the country’s best in the history of the event. Spain, which won the bronze medal, has a really talented young nucleus with Iyana Martin and Awa Fam, who are both 20.
Change in World Cup dates
One of the biggest weaknesses for the U.S. is just a lack of training time. The team got together as a whole group for the first time a few days before the World Cup began. That won’t be a problem in 2030 when the tournament will be played in Japan. FIBA shifted the dates of it to late November and early December. That means the Americans will have ample time after the WNBA season is over to get together to train.
FIBA also said that there won’t be any more back-to-back games with rest days for each team between group games as well as a day between the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals. In Berlin, the semis and finals were on consecutive days.
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