New-look USA see off China for fourth straight Fiba World Cup before record crowd

A’ja Wilson scored 19 factors, Kelsey Plum added 17 and the USA beat China 83-61 on Saturday to win their fourth consecutive gold medal on the girls’s basketball World Cup.

This was one of the vital dominant groups within the People’ storied historical past within the World Cup that now has received 11 gold medals. They now have received 4 straight gold medals for the first-time ever. This was additionally the largest win in a gold-medal recreation, surpassing the 20-point wins that the People had completed twice.

“It feels nice,” mentioned Wilson, who was chosen because the event’s MVP. “We got here right here on a mission, we obtained it. We obtained gold. Now we’re going house with some hardware. It feels nice to us. Australia was nice to us. I didn’t see any kangaroos, but it surely’s OK as a result of we're leaving with a gold.”

What began with Sue Hen and Diana Taurasi has now been handed right down to Wilson and Breanna Stewart. With Alyssa Thomas the oldest participant at 30, the domination may proceed for years to come back.

As they’ve completed all event, the People did it on each ends of the courtroom, taking part in stellar protection in addition to utilizing a high-powered offense.

The US (8-0) completed the World Cup averaging 98.8 factors – simply in need of the mark held by the 1994 workforce that averaged 99.1. They received by a mean of 40.8 factors, topping the mark held by the 2010 workforce.

A’ja Wilson
A’ja Wilson scored 19 factors for the USA in Saturday’s win over China within the gold medal recreation. Photograph: Matt King/Getty Photos

The sport was a sellout with practically 16,000 followers – the largest crowd to attend a girls’s World Cup recreation for the reason that inaugural event in 1953 in Chile.

Led by Li Yueru and Wu Tongtong, China hung round. The Chinese language workforce trailed 33-28 late within the second quarter earlier than the US went on a 10-2 run highlighted by fast-break layups by Stewart and Wilson to increase the benefit to double-digits.

Jin Weina hit a three-pointer simply earlier than the halftime buzzer to get China again to inside 10.

The US had been simply too good to let the upset occur, outscoring China 25-14 within the third. The People did have one scary second when Thomas went down after a collision with Li within the lane. She was helped off the courtroom, however returned a couple of minutes later.

China received their first medal for the reason that 1994 World Cup when the workforce additionally took the silver and are a rising energy in girls’s basketball. After the sport, the workforce posed for a photograph with their flag and males’s nice Yao Ming, who's the president of the Chinese language Basketball Affiliation.

Li completed with 19 factors and Wu added 13 earlier than leaving the sport within the fourth quarter after her knee gave out driving to the basket. She needed to be carried off the courtroom.

The victory was the thirtieth in a row in World Cup play for the People, who haven’t misplaced for the reason that 2006 semi-finals in opposition to Russia. The Soviet Union holdsthe World Cup document with 56 straight wins from 1959-86. That is solely the second time within the People’ storied historical past they’ve reached 4 consecutive gold medal contests. In addition they did it from 1979-90, successful thrice.

This US workforce, which has so many new faces on it, additionally continued to dominate the paint even with out 6ft 8in Brittney Griner, outscoring their opponents by a mean of 55-24.

These two groups met in pool play and China gave the US their hardest recreation, shedding by 14 factors.

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