Fiba Women’s Basketball World Cup last: U.S.A. v France– live
Key occasions
U.S.A. 17-18 France, 2:37 left, first qtr: Williams installs a 3 that strikes the back rim and drops directly down through the web.
A little bit of sloppiness at each end, and France discover Malonga alone under the basket to connect it.
Boston works inside for her very first hoop of the video game. Johannes launches from long variety to offer France the lead.
Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers remain in; Gabby Williams is out.
U.S.A. 15-10 France, 4:35 left, first qtr: Williams drives and draws a nasty onGray She misses out on the very first, makes the 2nd.
Boston remains in for the United States; Johannes gets in for France.
Gray strikes a fallaway jumper almost similar to her very first.
Another miss out on forFrance They get better with an excellent defensive series, requiring the United States to inbounds the ball with 3 seconds on the shot clock, however Gray discovers Stewart for the jumper. The 2 veterans have actually been dominant up until now.
Howard gets in for the United States and instantly removes the ball from Johannes, activating a break that Gray completes nicely. Five- point lead.
U.S.A. 9-9 France, 6:46 left, first qtr: All layups for France so far. Badiane this time.
Gray calmly strikes a jumper simply beyond the complimentary toss line. Ayayi turns it over, and Stewart connects it.
Williams misses out on, and Young strikes the very first 3 of the video game.
Better start for the United States than in some video games in this Cup.
Salaun responses from 3.
U.S.A. 2-4 France, 8:20 left, first qtr: Stewart strikes 2 complimentary tosses and passes Cheryl Miller to end up being the fifth-leading scorer in United States history.
Williams efficiently drives the lane to connect.
Miss for the United States, Lacan discovers a wide-open course to the hoop and converts. Basketball refs do not utilize the “benefit” concept, however Lacan benefited when the refs didn’t whistle a nasty by a United States protector on Williams.
Tipoff
Copper, Gray, Stewart, Collier and Young start for the U.S.A..
Ayayi, Salaun, Williams, Badiane and Lacan for France.
The referees are Julio Anaya (Panama), Ariadna Chueca (Spain) and Gatis Salins (Latvia).
Away we go …
France group
Born inNevada Excelled at Connecticut and was chosen 4th total in the 2018 WNBADraft Joined Golden State this year and has actually balanced a career-high 14.3 points. Gabby Williams is a normal United States ladies’s basketball success story. She simply takes place to bet a various nationwide group.
And she plays extremely well. She had 19 points, 7 rebounds and 3 takes in the tight Olympic last in 2024. If her foot had actually been a couple of inches back when she launched her last-second shot, that video game would’ve gone to overtime.
This year, she’s balancing 18.4 points per video game thanks to torrid shooting– 56.9% from the field, 48.4% from behind the arc, 91.7% on complimentary tosses.
Her colleague with the Valkyries, Janelle Salaun, is the second-leading scorer for Golden State and 3rd on the French group behind Williams and Marine Johannes of theNew York Liberty Dominique Malonga, a 20-year-old center who bets Seattle, is balancing 10 points per video game and leads the group inside with 6.6 rebounds and one block per video game.
Eight French gamers remain in the WNBA. Only one, Romane Bernies, plays in France.
United States group
Hey, isn’t Caitlin Clark on this group?
Yes And we can definitively state that her play has been … fine?
She’s balancing 20.6 minutes per video game, 3rd behind Jackie Young and Breanna Stewart, however she’s balancing simply 7 points. The portions are gruesome– 29.4% from the field, 22.7% from 3-point variety and simply 2 of 3 from the complimentary toss line.
Now the bright side: She leads the group in plus/minus (22 ), she’s the runaway leader in helps (5.8 per video game), and she’s doing that with far less turnovers (1.2 per video game) than she common installs in WNBA play.
Late in the video game, however, the group has actually looked somewhere else. Kahleah Copper changed Clark with 5:33 left in the semifinal, though Spain never ever got closer than 8 points after that. Against Italy, with the video game quite in doubt, Clark sat for the last 7:05. (Going 0-for-6 from the field didn’t assist her case for playing time.)
So who IS getting it provided for the United States group?
Basically, everybody.
If you’re voting today, the MVP isStewart She leads the group with 6.8 rebounds per video game and is hardly behind Young (11.2 to 11.0) in points. Stewart and Young are 2 of simply 5 gamers who were on the 2024 Olympic lineup, line up with ever-reliable point player Chelsea Gray and 2 experienced glue gamers in Napheesa Collier andKahleah Copper All 5 are contributing, unlike the 2024 Olympics, when Diana Taurasi was essentially a traveler taking a profession triumph lap.
The least-used gamers this year are 2 newbies, the Washington Mystics duo of Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen, both of whom are contributing and getting experience. Rhyne Howard is a beginner with asterisk, having actually won Olympic bronze in 3×3 basketball. Then the group has what might be a golden generation in the making– Clark, Angel Reese, Aliyah Boston and Paige Bueckers.
On TNT’s protection, the studio team and a number of gamers mused aloud about who would take a last-second shot for the group. The slim agreement went to Stewart, carefully followed byGray But the panels concur– it might be anybody on the lineup.
Preamble: A golden rematch
The most-anticipated rematch given that Rocky Balboa dealt with Apollo Creed for the 2nd time will decrease in Berlin.
This United States ladies’s basketball group’s success has actually long been considered given. Since the Olympic boycott in 1980, we can actually count the group’s losses in World Cup and Olympic champions on one hand, and 2 of those remained in the group’s silver medal project in the 1983World Cup They lost in the semifinals of the 1992 Olympics to their conventional competitor Unified Team, then in the semifinals of the 1994 World Cup toBrazil Since then, they have actually gone 121-1, with the sole acne being the 2006 World Cup semifinal versusRussia At the video game’s leading levels, they have actually won 71 directly.
If you like, you can include the Goodwill Games, kept in 1986, 1990 and 1994. United States record: 14-0.
But in the last 2 competitors, they have actually handled 2 of the closest video games in their history.
Two years back in the Olympic last, the United States routed France by as numerous as 10 points in the 3rd quarter before A’ja Wilson put the group on her back. The video game ended with France’s Gabby Williams striking a last-second shot that appeared to have actually connected the video game till all of us saw the replay revealing her foot on the 3-point arc. France required 3 and got 2. Game over.
The Guardian’s MBM analyst for that video game was plainly out of breath by the end, however I have actually recuperated.
This year, Wilson isn’t around to get the group through clutch time. That might discuss why the United States resisted a good-but-not-great Italy group in the group phase, quiting a 15-point lead and trading the lead backward and forward. The defense held Italy to 4 points in the last 5 minutes to hold on for a 55-52 win.
The United States looked susceptible once again in the other day’s semifinal. Spain led 16-9 and was connected 56-56 late in the 3rd quarter, however the defense once again secured down.
Vivement la revanche.
Beau will be here soon. In the meantime, here’s how the United States got on in the semi-final:
Breanna Stewart scored 16 points and Kahleah Copper included 13 for the four-time protecting champs, who were connected at 58 going into the 4th quarter before lastly taking control. Jackie Young included 12 points.
” I believe it’s 2 terrific groups going to go head-to-head,” Copper stated. “You understand I’m thrilled for the match. I’m thrilled for us to be able to complete.”
Spain led 13-4 midway through the very first quarter and routed just 39-36 at halftime. Mar ía Conde and Iyana Mart ín struck three-pointers early in the 3rd as Spain eliminated the deficit, while Mart ín’s 2 complimentary tosses with 53 seconds left sent out the video game into the 4th connected at 58.
Copper and Young scored to open the 4th before Stewart assisted the United States develop separation. The Americans extended their result in 8 with simply over 6 minutes staying before Young’s take and layup made it 76-64 with 1:42 left.
Conde and Mart ín scored 17 points each for Spain, who held the Americans to 40% shooting. The United States made just 3 of 18 three-point efforts, while Caitlin Clark completed with one point and missed out on all 3 of her shots from beyond the arc.
You can check out the complete report listed below:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/sep/12/usa-spain-womens-basketball-world-cup-semi-final
