Team USA Routs Czechia 105-64 to Sweep Group Stage, Extends World Cup Win Streak to 33
Breanna Stewart poured in 19 points and Caitlin Clark bounced back from a rough outing as the Americans blew past Czechia in Berlin to lock up an unbeaten group stage.
Team USA closed out group play at the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup in dominant fashion Monday, routing Czechia 105-64 in Berlin to finish a perfect 3-0 in Group D, according to NBC Sports and Olympics.com. The 41-point margin extended the Americans' World Cup winning streak to 33 straight games, a run stretching back to 2006.
Three-time Olympic gold medalist Breanna Stewart led the way with 19 points, seven rebounds and six assists, and six different players finished in double figures as the U.S. shared the ball and shooting load throughout. The blowout came one game after the Americans survived their closest FIBA World Cup contest in two decades, a reminder that even a team with a nearly two-decade unbeaten streak can be pushed in the group stage of a global tournament.
Clark Rebounds From a Rough Night
Guard Caitlin Clark, who struggled in the tighter win over Group D competition earlier in the tournament, looked sharper against Czechia and was among the six Americans in double figures. Stewart, reflecting on the team's start to the tournament, told reporters the group's "best is in front of us" — a notably confident line given the U.S. has now outscored its three group opponents by a combined margin that ranks among the most lopsided starts of the modern World Cup era.
OUR BEST IS IN FRONT OF US
The win locks the Americans into the quarterfinal bracket, where they'll face the winner of Thursday's Group C matchup between Japan and Hungary. That game tips off Sept. 10, with the Americans favored heavily to advance to the semifinals regardless of the opponent, given their current run of form and the tournament's history of American dominance.
The U.S. has now won every FIBA Women's World Cup it has entered since 2006, a stretch covering four consecutive tournament titles. A fifth would further cement the program's status as the most dominant dynasty in international team sports, men's or women's, and would arrive just months after several of the same players competed together domestically in the WNBA season.
Team USA's coaching staff has used the group stage to rotate its bench deep, a sign the roster is both deeper and more experienced than in past cycles heading into the tournament's single-elimination rounds.