USA Advances to Fifth Consecutive Fiba Women’s Basketball World Cup Final
The United States are back on the brink of another world title. Again.
In Berlin on Saturday, the four-time defending champions survived a fierce Spain challenge, then slammed the door in the fourth quarter to win 76-66 and reach a fifth consecutive Fiba Women’s Basketball World Cup final.
Spain swing first, USA stagger
For the first 15 minutes, it was Spain’s game.
They came out fearless, sharp, and utterly unimpressed by the USA’s aura. María Conde and Iyana Martín pushed the tempo, the defence swarmed, and the Americans looked rattled as Spain surged to a 13-4 lead midway through the first quarter.
The gap never ballooned, but it never quite felt comfortable for the US either. By halftime, the holders were in front, but only just, 39-36. Spain had done what so few manage at this level: they had turned the game into a contest, not a coronation.
Conde and Martín light it up
The third quarter belonged to Spain’s backcourt.
Conde and Martín drilled three-pointers early in the period, wiping out the deficit and sending a clear message that this would not be a routine American march to the final. Every USA mistake was punished, every loose ball contested.
When Martín calmly sank two free throws with 53 seconds left in the third, the scoreboard read 58-58. The arena knew what that meant: the favourites were on the ropes, and Spain had 10 minutes to pull off a seismic upset.
Stewart, Copper and Young close the door
That was the cue for the champions to respond.
Kahleah Copper and Jackie Young struck first to open the fourth quarter, giving the USA a little breathing room. Then Breanna Stewart took hold of the night. The forward, who finished with 16 points, began to dictate the terms — finding seams, drawing contact, making the right reads as the American attack finally found some rhythm.
The lead crept out to eight with just over six minutes remaining, the kind of margin that feels far bigger when you’re trying to chase down a team that rarely lets go of a game once it has its hands around it.
Spain kept swinging, but the mistakes they had avoided earlier began to appear. The pressure finally told.
With 1:42 left, Young jumped a passing lane, raced clear and finished a layup that pushed the score to 76-64. It was the play that broke Spanish resistance and underlined her impact on both ends, adding to her 12 points on the night.
Spain’s resistance, USA’s ruthlessness
Conde and Martín each finished with 17 points, the twin engines of a Spanish performance full of grit and ambition. Their team held the USA to 40% shooting from the field and forced them into a miserable 3-of-18 from three-point range.
Even the tournament’s headline-maker, Caitlin Clark, was kept quiet. She scored just one point and missed all three of her attempts from beyond the arc, a reminder that this American machine can win even when one of its most talked-about stars misfires.
That is the problem for everyone else: the margin for error against the USA is microscopic. Spain pushed them to that edge, but never quite over it.
A streak that spans generations
The victory extended the Americans’ World Cup winning streak to 35 games. They have not lost in this tournament since a semi-final defeat to Russia in 2006, a run that now stretches across eras, coaches and rosters but keeps delivering the same result.
On Sunday, they will face France, who brushed aside host nation Germany 86-64 in the other semi-final. Another European challenger, another shot at history.
The question is no longer whether the USA can be beaten at a World Cup. It’s whether anyone can stop them before this streak becomes the standard by which every future dynasty is judged.
