USA Women’s Basketball Team Advances to Final Again
The United States are back in familiar territory. Another Fiba Women’s Basketball World Cup final. Another statement of supremacy.
In Berlin on Saturday, the four-time defending champions were pushed, rattled and briefly put on the ropes by a fearless Spain side – then tore the game away in the fourth quarter to win 76-66 and book a fifth straight trip to the final.
Spain swing first
Spain did not arrive to play the underdog. They came to punch first.
Midway through the opening quarter, the scoreboard read 13-4 to Spain and the arena felt it. The US looked rushed, Spain composed. María Conde and Iyana Martín dictated the early tone, Spain moving the ball crisply, cutting sharply, defending with edge.
The Americans steadied, as they usually do, but never quite shook Spain before the break. Even when the US found a bit of rhythm, Spain kept the gap narrow and refused to be overawed. At halftime, the champions led only 39-36. The game was tight, the favourites uncomfortable.
Spain refuse to fold
Any thought that the US would simply stride out of the locker room and put the game away vanished within minutes of the restart.
Conde and Martín drilled three-pointers early in the third quarter, the Spanish bench roaring as the deficit disappeared. Every US miss from deep – and there were many – fed Spain’s belief. The Americans finished just 3-of-18 from three-point range, their perimeter game stubbornly misfiring.
Still, the US found ways to stay level. Breanna Stewart worked for her points, finishing with 16, while Kahleah Copper kept attacking and Jackie Young chipped in with timely scoring. Yet Spain stayed right there. With 53 seconds left in the third, Martín stepped to the line and calmly sank two free throws to knot the game at 58-58.
Thirty minutes gone. Nothing between them. The champions needed a response.
Stewart, Copper and Young slam the door
The answer came immediately.
Copper and Young opened the fourth quarter with baskets that felt bigger than their value on the scoreboard. The US suddenly had a two-possession cushion and, more importantly, a surge of control they had lacked all night.
From there, Stewart went to work. The forward began to bend the game to her will, finding pockets of space, drawing contact, making the right reads. The US lead grew to eight with just over six minutes to play, the defense tightening as Spain’s legs began to tire.
Spain still fought. Conde and Martín, each finishing with 17 points, kept driving, kept shooting, kept asking questions. They also helped hold the Americans to 40% shooting, a number that would beat most teams on most nights.
But not this team. Not this stage.
With 1:42 remaining, Young jumped a passing lane, picked Spain’s pocket and raced away for a layup that pushed the margin to 76-64. It was the play that finally broke Spain’s resistance, a moment that carried the weight of an entire tournament’s momentum.
Clark quiet, machine rolls on
On a night when the US needed every ounce of their experience, they did it without fireworks from one of their most talked-about names. Caitlin Clark finished with just one point, missing all three of her attempts from beyond the arc. Her struggles from deep mirrored the team’s wider issues from long range, yet the depth and defensive backbone of this roster covered the gap.
That is the luxury – and the standard – of a program that simply does not lose at this event.
The victory stretched the United States’ World Cup winning streak to 35 games. They have not tasted defeat in this tournament since a semi-final loss to Russia in 2006. Generations have changed. The expectation has not.
Next comes France in Sunday’s final, after the French brushed aside host Germany 86-64. Another European challenger. Another team convinced it can crack the code.
Spain came close to asking real, late questions of the champions and still walked away with a double-digit defeat. Now the stage belongs to France.
Can anyone stop this American run, or are we watching a dynasty simply extend its own record book?
