BERLIN (AP) — Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier set the tone early to help the U.S. bounce back from its worst offensive performance in 50 years.
Stewart had 11 of her 19 points in the first quarter and Collier scored seven of her 12 in the second as the Americans routed the Czech Republic 105-64 on Monday.
“I just wanted to be better. I just wanted to really lead by example,” Stewart said. “Not only just from stats, but just the way that I was communicating to my teammates. This is a big moment for all of us and we need to take full advantage of it.”
Stewart was coming off the worst shooting game in her stellar career for USA Basketball. She missed her first eight shots against Italy on Sunday before hitting the go-ahead basket in the 55-52 gritty win on Sunday.
She got going early against the Czechs and finished 8 of 11 from the field to along with seven rebounds and six assists while playing only 17 minutes.
“I knew the ball had to go in the basket for me, like come on,” Stewart said with a smile. “I was trying to get out early, rebound and run and put pressure on the rim. I thought that overall as a team, we did a really good job of seeing the lanes that we weren’t running last night and running them today.”
The Americans won their 33rd in a row in the tournament, going back to a semifinal loss to Russia in the 2006 World Cup.
Next up for the U.S. is the quarterfinal round on Thursday. They’ll face the winner of the Hungary vs. Japan game which takes place Tuesday.
Stewart had 11 points in the first 10 minutes as the U.S. jumped out to a 29-15 lead. The Americans had only 30 points in the first half against Italy. They kept it going in the second quarter behind Collier.
“We weren’t happy with our performance yesterday, really on either side,” Collier said. “So just coming with the mindset that we’re going to play as hard as we can, we’re going to be aggressive.”
U.S. coach Kara Lawson said she just needed to remind her two veterans how good they are between the two games.
“They’re both complete players and there’s no doubt when they’re playing at a really high level our team clicks and so it was it was great to see them both come out with great aggression with great confidence. Confident in who they are and what we were doing.”
The Americans extended the advantage to 57-33 at the half. They weren’t challenged in the second half by the Czechs as the lead ballooned to more than 40 points.
Stewart finished short of her World Cup career-high of 23 points set against China in 2018.
The Czech Republic finished winless in pool play. The Czechs were playing in their first World Cup since 2014. They won the silver medal when they hosted the event in 2010.
In other games on Monday, China beat Italy; Germany topped Mali; Belgium beat Australia; Puerto Rico edged Turkey; France routed Nigeria; Spain beat Japan and Hungary slipped past Korea.
___
