BERLIN — After a scare in the group phase against Italy, Team USA knew it wouldn’t be able to play poorly in the knockout rounds of the FIBA World Cup if it wanted to come away with a fifth straight gold medal and 12th overall.
It was only the quarterfinals, but the U.S. responded to that challenge, putting together what the team viewed as its best performance of the tournament with a 108-56 drilling of Hungary. The Americans’ 108 points and 31 assists were both records for a World Cup quarterfinal game.
Napheesa Collier led all scorers with 19 points — a personal best with the senior national team — followed by 15 from Rhyne Howard and 10 each from Kahleah Copper, Caitlin Clark and Jackie Young.
“We talked about just getting better with each game, and I think we did that today, especially with how we shared [the ball],” Howard said. “I think if we continue to play like that and continue to keep everybody on the same page, continue to move the ball, it’s going to be really hard to stop us.”
Added Collier: “We were moving the ball a lot. It wasn’t one-on-one. We were looking for a great shot, not just a good shot, and so when we play that way, it’s really fun. And I feel like our chemistry is building each game.”
The U.S. will face either Spain or Australia in Saturday’s semifinal, which will tip at 2 p.m. ET.
The Americans got out to a hot start, jumping ahead 36-12 at the end of the first quarter and leading 59-30 at the half. Their defense frustrated Hungary, which saw star post duo Dorka Juhasz and Virag Takacs-Kiss combine for just four points.
The U.S. had 25 of its 44 points off turnovers at the half, using defense to fuel offense on the other end.
“Everybody’s just all dialed in offensively and defensively,” said Angel Reese, who finished with nine points, six rebounds and three assists. “We talked about our keys, what it’s going to take to win gold, and I think tonight we did everything that coach asked us to do.”
Two games after Italy held the U.S. to 55 points, the Americans got mostly whatever they wanted offensively. Their 58.8% field goal percentage was their best clip of the tournament, and 12 3-pointers matched their tournament high after shooting 29% from deep in the group stage.
Team USA also won the inside battle Thursday, its 32 paint points at the half (52 overall) were more than the entire Hungary team had scored at that point.
“I feel like today was a really good one for us,” Collier said. “We worked on some defensive schemes that we wanted to get better at, some offensive stuff that we wanted to clean up, and so I feel like we went out and executed that.”
The 108 points marked the second most scored in a knockout game in World Cup history, behind only Brazil’s 110 against the U.S. in the 1994 semifinals. The 52-point win margin was the second largest for a quarterfinal in World Cup history.
“I thought it started with our activity on the defensive end,” coach Kara Lawson said. “And so our ability to turn them over, get out in transition, get some advantage plays, 2-on-1, 3-on-2, I thought gave us a lot of confidence early. And then our ability to shoot the 3-point shot … we have a really good 3-point shooting team, and so I just thought that’s what kind of jump-started us.”
Lawson and the players agreed the performance was a product of their expedited chemistry-building finally starting to come into fruition. Unlike many national teams, the U.S. did not have a training camp or much prep time together before arriving in Berlin, last gathering as a group (and not its final roster) at the Final Four in April. They have now been together for about 10 days after leaving their WNBA teams.
“The more we play, the more comfortable we’re getting with each other,” said Young, the only American to hit double figures in each game this tournament. “And tonight we got the ball popping and we were able to get some easy buckets in transition.”
Added Collier: “Today felt good, not just because of the score, but in the way that we were scoring as well.”
