Team USA’s pursuit of its fifth consecutive World Cup gold medal remains alive after a convincing 108-56 victory over Hungary in the quarterfinals on Thursday morning. They will play the winner of the later quarter-final between Australia and Spain.
Against Hungary, it was Napheesa Collier’s turn to be the breakthrough American player. She scored 10 points in the first half and finished with a game-high 19 points with seven rebounds. Coming into the quarterfinals, the 19 points were a single-game high for the USA in this tournament, set by Breanna Stewart against the Czech Republic on Tuesday. Against Hungary, she had 8 points, three rebounds and two assists.
The tournament has been a mixed bag of performances from the USA, but Thursday’s quarter-final was their best overall. The Americans assisted on 31 of their 40 shots, the most ever in a quarterfinal game.
Defensively, Team USA forced turnovers and limited Hungary’s second chances. Hungary had only eight shot attempts in the first half and 22 in the entire game. Meanwhile, the United States connected on 40 of its 68 field goal attempts and went 12 of 23 from 3-point range.
The U.S. has shot just 29 percent since going deep into the quarterfinals. On Thursday, Gray was the first shot from beyond the arc for more than half of the first quarter. Seven of Team USA’s 12 players found the bottom of the net on 3-point attempts. As a team, he shot 52 percent from deep.
“Winning is fun,” said Kahleah Copper, who finished with 10 points, five rebounds and two assists. “There’s nothing like winning and when you do it at the highest level, you know what it takes. When that ball is moving, we want to get the best shot possible. We want to make sure everyone is involved.”
In Team USA’s fourth game in Berlin, coach Kara Lawson deployed the same starting five she has used all tournament: Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young, Kahleah Copper, Collier and Stewart.
Lawson said at halftime that she wanted to see the team play with the “right” amount of energy despite the early morning tip-off. The United States did just that, forcing 13 turnovers in the first half, outscoring Hungary 32-4 in the game, shooting 65 percent from the field and assisting on 15 of their 24 field goals.
By the second quarter, the USA looked like a well-oiled machine, running with speed and efficiency. Hungary had no chance of an upset, giving Lawson the opportunity to rely heavily on his young core.
“It started with our activity defensively,” Lawson said. “If I remember correctly, we were down 25 points at halftime. Our ability to turn it over, get out in transition, get some advantage plays gave us a lot of confidence early on. . . . We have so many capable offensive players. All of our players are leading scorers or one of the leading scorers with their WNBA teams. We know that on offense they can find a good job every night. Second.”
Paige Bueckers was the first off the bench, subbing for Copper, followed by Caitlin Clark for Gray late in the first quarter. Lawson finished the quarter with Bueckers, Clark, Rhyne Howard, Angel Reese and Collier. On the final play, Clark found Reese on a pick-and-roll that put the USA up 24 points in the second quarter.
“After the first quarter it was basically a game,” Hungary coach Péter Völgyi said.
Washington Mystics teammates Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen scored first in the third quarter. They made the World Cup roster late after Olympic and World Cup gold medalists A’ja Wilson and Kelsey Plum were sidelined with injuries. Citron was the first of the two to come off the bench in the second half, but was checked out a minute later after being hit in the jaw under the basket on defense. She was evaluated in the locker room, but returned to start the fourth quarter.
The “youth and turnaround” team closed the game for the USA as the entire starting unit spent the last 10 minutes on the bench. Howard finished with 15 points, Clark added 10 points and nine assists, and Bueckers, Citron, Iriafen and Reese combined for 22 points.
