Michael VoepelCloseMichael VoepelESPN Senior WriterMichael Voepel is a senior writer who covers the WNBA, women’s college basketball and other college sports. Voepel began covering women’s basketball in 1984, and has been with ESPN since 1996. and Alexa PhilippouMultiple AuthorsSep 13, 2026, 05:30 PM ETOpen Extended ReactionsThe U.S. women’s basketball team has not lost a game in major international play since 2006 and has lost only one gold medal game (in 1983). Yet when the Americans faced a double-digit deficit in the first half of the FIBA Women’s World Cup final Sunday, they couldn’t just rely on history.They had to get it done on court.Team USA beat France 97-79 in Berlin to win its fifth consecutive World Cup title and 12th overall. Trailing 45-43 at halftime, the Americans took control in the third quarter, outscoring France 30-12.
That dominance decided the game and the gold medal.Coming in, France had been the more impressive team in the tournament, winning its five games by an average of 35.6 points with no margin closer than 22. Team USA, by contrast, beat Italy in group play by three points and Spain in the semifinals by 10. A strong start Sunday kept the momentum on France’s side.But then the U.S. defense took it up a notch in the second half, and the offense followed. The mojo changed entirely in the Americans’ favor, with multiple players stepping forward.Stars such as four-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson and Kelsey Plum were out due to injuries.
That led to seven of the 12 U.S. players competing in their first major 5-on-5 international competition, including Rhyne Howard, Aliyah Boston, Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers, the past four WNBA Rookie of the Year award winners.But the veterans supplemented all the “new,” led by Jackie Young, Breanna Stewart, Chelsea Gray, Kahleah Copper and Napheesa Collier. Young, who had 18 points, six rebounds and five assists, was Sunday’s player of the game. Stewart, who had 22 points, 10 rebounds and four assists, was MVP of the tournament.Now the WNBA players from all the teams in this tournament head back to finish the regular season and get ready for the playoffs. But here’s how Team USA stayed on top of the world and denied France its first World Cup gold.How did Team USA go from trailing by 14 points to winning by 18?Voepel: Defense.
France was getting the shots it wanted and making them in the first half. That had been the case throughout this tournament, as the French offense had controlled all its previous games.That changed in the second half, as the U.S. women relied on both their individual defensive strengths and their ability to switch without losing anything in their matchups. Everything the Americans did in the third quarter defensively was sharper, quicker and more focused. Not surprisingly, forcing France into missed shots and turnovers fueled the Americans’ offense.U.S. coach Kara Lawson is known as a defensive coach at Duke, and U.S. assistant Natalie Nakase guides the WNBA’s top defensive team, the Golden State Valkyries.
That expertise on the bench and the defensive strengths of the Americans’ veterans turned around the game.Stewart told TNT after the game that even when the Americans were down 14, they really weren’t rattled. The fact that they cut the deficit to two by halftime — a big steal by Angel Reese led to a 3-pointer by Clark before the buzzer — gave the team a boost. And the Americans looked very confident starting the third quarter. Those 10 minutes made all the difference.Philippou: Lawson said the second quarter might have been her favorite of the game.
The U.S. women still trailed by two when the period ended, but the momentum had shifted in their favor — especially after those plays from Reese and Clark — and they had started to figure out some things. Once they got into the locker room, they could home in on how to fix the defensive lapses that plagued them early on.At halftime, Stewart said, Lawson told the players that France might stay with them for three quarters, but by the time they got to the fourth, the United States was going to be able to bust things open. “Little do we know,” Stewart said, “it came in the third quarter.”And before long, Team USA looked to have regained the psychological edge, getting whatever it wanted on both ends. Another back-breaking moment was when France got called for two flagrants in a single play at the end of the third quarter, which resulted in a five-point possession for the United States and extended its lead to 73-57 going into the fourth.”We have to give France a lot of credit,” Clark said.
“They play with a lot of grit. They play with a lot of passion. They’re aggressive. But I think we showed what wearing a USA jersey is all about.
It’s about dominating, and that’s exactly what we did.”Did it hurt that France wasn’t tested until the gold medal game?Voepel: This wasn’t a tight game down to the wire in which France might have needed that experience. However, where it perhaps cost the French is that they hadn’t faced a defense as good as what Team USA threw at them in the third quarter. France had been especially good all tournament from behind the arc, and it again reached double-digit 3-pointers with 11 on Sunday. But the French went from 8-of-14 from 3-point range in the first half to 3-of-10 in the second.And Gabby Williams, who had been a force all tournament, went from 16 points in the first half to four in the second.
Marine Johannes, one of France’s main sharpshooters, had just one 3-pointer in the game.How well did Team USA’s newcomers play?Voepel: Overall, they did their jobs, and that says a lot when you add in the extra pressure of playing for your country. Tons of eyes were on Clark, of course, and she had a double-double in Team USA’s opener vs. China. While she didn’t shoot as well from 3-point range as she would have liked during the tournament (7-for-25, 28%), she was 2-of-3 from behind the arc Sunday and 4-of-5 from the field.
She finished with 12 points and three assists and led Team USA in overall assists for the tournament with 32. Reese also made her presence felt, especially on the defensive end of the court where her size and quick hands flustered foes.Guards Clark and Bueckers don’t have anywhere near as much experience at the international level or in playing together as Gray and Young, who have been Las Vegas Aces teammates for six years with three WNBA titles. That helps explain why Lawson relied more on the vets during the most stressful periods in the Americans’ close games but gave the youngsters playing time throughout the tournament so that the vets weren’t worn out by the gold medal game.Every Team USA basketball coach — women’s and men’s — is always heavily scrutinized for how they balance having so much talent and distributing minutes. In the end, give Lawson credit for how she allowed growth and important court time for the young players but also understood when veteran experience was what Team USA needed most.Philippou: Taking the tournament as a whole, all of the young players had some really strong moments, showed where they have some room for growth and demonstrated the promise of what they might be able to do over time as a collective.
And while Lawson relied heavily on the vets against France, what those younger players absorbed from the experience of playing for the senior national team and observing the older players is invaluable. With Team USA coming home with gold and its winning streak in major international tournaments intact, it was as good of a debut as could realistically be expected.What does this win mean for Team USA?Voepel: It’s a new era for the world’s dominant power in women’s basketball but the same result. Team USA’s last loss in a major international competition was in the 2006 World Cup semifinals to Russia. Before that, the most recent American losses were in the 1992 Olympic semifinals to what was then called the Unified Team (essentially the f
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