The United States trailed by 14 points in Berlin on Sunday and still won a World Cup final by 18. Breanna Stewart scored 22 points with 10 rebounds, Jackie Young added 18 on 4-of-7 shooting from three-point range, and a 30-12 third quarter buried France in a 97-79 victory that delivered a fifth consecutive Women’s Basketball World Cup title — and a 12th overall — to a programme that has not lost a game at this tournament in 20 years.
Stewart was named Most Valuable Player, becoming the first player in the history of the men’s or women’s World Cup to win the award twice, having also taken it in 2018. She finished 7-of-10 from the field and 8-of-9 from the free-throw line, and passed Cheryl Miller for fifth place on Team USA’s all-time World Cup scoring list. Only Sue Bird has matched her four World Cup gold medals among American players.
France’s hot start, and the third quarter that ended it
For 20 minutes, France looked like the team capable of doing what no side has managed since 2006. They shot 8-of-14 from beyond the arc in the first half, led by as many as 14 in the second quarter, and went into the interval ahead 45-43 after the United States closed on a 16-9 run capped by a Caitlin Clark three-pointer at the buzzer.
“I think we felt really good about where we were at,” Clark said. “I think France was 8 for 14 from three. We dug ourself a hole, but we climbed out of it.”
The climb took eight minutes. The United States outscored France 30-12 in the third quarter, turning a two-point deficit into a rout. The decisive sequence came midway through the period: Kahleah Copper drew an unsportsmanlike foul, and Aliyah Boston’s bucket on the ensuing possession stretched the lead to 17. France, who had made almost everything in the first half, made almost nothing after it.
Young, named Player of the Game, was the steadying influence, adding five assists to her 18 points. Copper finished with 15, Chelsea Gray had 12 points and five assists, and Clark contributed 12 off the bench. Dominique Malonga led France with 21 points and Gabby Williams scored 20.
“Of course we’re disappointed right now,” Williams said, “but I think we’re showing little by little, France is a basketball country.”
A Soviet record equalled
The five-peat draws the United States level with the Soviet Union, who won five straight World Cups between 1959 and 1975 in an era of far shallower international competition. The supporting numbers are starker still: 36 consecutive World Cup wins, stretching back to a semi-final defeat in 2006, and a 72-game winning streak across major international tournaments.
“We are the standard,” Stewart said. “USA Basketball has continued to show up and go for gold and to have done that however many times consecutively is an insane stat.”
What makes this title different is who oversaw it. Kara Lawson, promoted after serving as an assistant during the gold medal run at the 2024 Paris Olympics, was in charge for her first senior tournament, working with a staff drawn from across the WNBA in Stephanie White, Natalie Nakase and Nate Tibbetts. Seven of her players were making their World Cup debuts on a roster that collectively owns 14 Olympic and nine World Cup golds.
Stewart and Young were both named to the tournament’s All-Star Five, alongside Williams, Germany’s Leonie Fiebich and Spain’s Iyana Martín. Spain took bronze with an 81-58 win over hosts Germany, Martín scoring 22 at the age of 20.
The gap is closing, slowly
The scoreline says dominance. The first half says something more interesting. France pushed the United States harder than any opponent across the 4-13 September tournament, and did so with a 20-year-old in Malonga who looks like the centrepiece of a genuine challenger. Spain’s dismantling of Germany and Martín’s tournament suggest European depth is broadening rather than narrowing.
For the United States, the immediate horizon is the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, where the target will be an eighth straight Olympic gold on home soil. Lawson now has a full cycle to integrate the generation that arrived in Berlin — Clark, Boston, Malonga’s contemporaries in the American system — around a core that will not last forever. Stewart is 32. Gray is 33.
Five in a row is a record shared. Six would be a record alone, and the field that lost in Berlin has four years to make sure it does not happen.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
811 articles published
