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 55-52 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.
“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 by one point in the title game.
“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 other games on Sunday, China edged the Czech Republic in overtime, Australia topped Turkey and Belgium beat Puerto Rico.
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