Key events
Edwin Horsley writes: “Thank you, Beau, for writing an actual “fair and balanced” piece about Caitlin Clark’s play – thus far- during this FIBA tournament. Perhaps she will have a really good “Caitlin Clark” game today, so her fans can once again engage in delusional praise.”
I think Clark is the most exciting player I’ve ever seen in women’s basketball. Her court vision is second to none. She makes passes most players would never imagine. When her shot is falling, she’s great. But day-in, day-out against the world’s best players, that happens less frequently than a lot of her fawning admirers care to admit.
End 1st qtr: USA 17-20 France
Aside to sports commentators – when players are wildly contesting for the ball on the ground, it’s not accurate to say it’s a “scrum.” If anything, it’s a “ruck.” A scrum is organized. What just happened was not, and France got the best of it.
Malonga makes two free throws.
Clark’s first contribution to the game is a turnover on a bad entry pass.
Clark’s second contribution to the game is a turnover as she steps on the baseline. On each turnover, she just held the ball way too long and dribbled into trouble.
USA 17-18 France, 1:25 left, 1st qtr: Reese battles inside against the tallest player in this game, Malonga, and earns a pair of free throws but misses both badly.
USA 17-18 France, 1:30 left, 1st qtr: Angel Reese rotates in for the US.
Wide-open three-point attempt for Ayayi looks bad enough that the US will probably let her keep taking those fore a while.
USA 17-18 France, 2:37 left, 1st qtr: Williams puts up a three that hits the back rim and drops straight down through the net.
A bit of sloppiness at each end, and France find Malonga alone under the basket to tie it.
Boston works inside for her first hoop of the game. Johannes launches from long range to give France the lead.
Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers are in; Gabby Williams is out.
USA 15-10 France, 4:35 left, 1st qtr: Williams drives and draws a foul on Gray. She misses the first, makes the second.
Boston is in for the US; Johannes enters for France.
Gray hits a fallaway jumper nearly identical to her first.
Another miss for France. They bounce back with a good defensive sequence, forcing the US to inbounds the ball with three seconds on the shot clock, but Gray finds Stewart for the jumper. The two veterans have been dominant so far.
Howard enters for the US and immediately strips the ball from Johannes, triggering a break that Gray finishes neatly. Five-point lead.
USA 9-9 France, 6:46 left, 1st qtr: All layups for France thus far. Badiane this time.
Gray calmly hits a jumper just beyond the free throw line. Ayayi turns it over, and Stewart ties it.
Williams misses, and Young hits the first 3 of the game.
Better start for the US than in some games in this Cup.
Salaun answers from 3.
USA 2-4 France, 8:20 left, 1st qtr: Stewart hits two free throws and passes Cheryl Miller to become the fifth-leading scorer in US history.
Williams smoothly drives the lane to tie.
Miss for the US, Lacan finds a wide-open path to the hoop and converts. Basketball refs don’t use the “advantage” principle, but Lacan benefited when the refs didn’t whistle a foul by a US defender on Williams.
Tipoff
Copper, Gray, Stewart, Collier and Young start for the USA.
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 team
Born in Nevada. Excelled at Connecticut and was picked fourth overall in the 2018 WNBA Draft. Joined Golden State this year and has averaged a career-high 14.3 points. Gabby Williams is a typical US women’s basketball success story. She just happens to play for a different national team.
And she plays very well. She had 19 points, seven rebounds and three steals in the taut Olympic final in 2024. If her foot had been a few inches back when she released her last-second shot, that game would’ve gone to overtime.
This year, she’s averaging 18.4 points per game thanks to torrid shooting – 56.9% from the field, 48.4% from behind the arc, 91.7% on free throws.
Her teammate with the Valkyries, Janelle Salaun, is the second-leading scorer for Golden State and third on the French team behind Williams and Marine Johannes of the New York Liberty. Dominique Malonga, a 20-year-old center who plays for Seattle, is averaging 10 points per game and leads the team inside with 6.6 rebounds and one block per game.
Eight French players are in the WNBA. Only one, Romane Bernies, plays in France.
US team
Hey, isn’t Caitlin Clark on this team?
Yes. And we can definitively declare that her play has been … fine?
She’s averaging 20.6 minutes per game, third behind Jackie Young and Breanna Stewart, but she’s averaging just 7 points. The percentages are gruesome – 29.4% from the field, 22.7% from 3-point range and just two of three from the free throw line.
Now the good news: She leads the team in plus/minus (22), she’s the runaway leader in assists (5.8 per game), and she’s doing that with far fewer turnovers (1.2 per game) than she typical puts up in WNBA play.
Late in the game, though, the team has looked elsewhere. Kahleah Copper replaced Clark with 5:33 left in the semifinal, though Spain never got closer than eight points after that. Against Italy, with the game very much in doubt, Clark sat for the last 7:05. (Going 0-for-6 from the field didn’t help her case for playing time.)
So who IS getting it done for the US team?
Basically, everyone.
If you’re voting today, the MVP is Stewart. She leads the team with 6.8 rebounds per game and is barely behind Young (11.2 to 11.0) in points. Stewart and Young are two of just five players who were on the 2024 Olympic roster, align with ever-reliable point guard Chelsea Gray and two veteran glue players in Napheesa Collier and Kahleah Copper. All five are contributing, unlike the 2024 Olympics, when Diana Taurasi was basically a passenger taking a career victory lap.
The least-used players this year are two newcomers, the Washington Mystics duo of Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen, both of whom are contributing and gaining experience. Rhyne Howard is a newbie with asterisk, having won Olympic bronze in 3×3 basketball. Then the team has what may be a golden generation in the making – Clark, Angel Reese, Aliyah Boston and Paige Bueckers.
On TNT’s coverage, the studio crew and several players mused aloud about who would take a last-second shot for the team. The slim consensus went to Stewart, closely followed by Gray. But the panels agree – it could be anyone on the roster.
Preamble: A golden rematch
The most-anticipated rematch since Rocky Balboa faced Apollo Creed for the second time is about to go down in Berlin.
This US women’s basketball team’s success has long been taken for granted. Since the Olympic boycott in 1980, we can literally count the team’s losses in World Cup and Olympic championships on one hand, and two of those were in the team’s silver medal campaign in the 1983 World Cup. They lost in the semifinals of the 1992 Olympics to their traditional rival Unified Team, then in the semifinals of the 1994 World Cup to Brazil. Since then, they’ve gone 121-1, with the sole blemish being the 2006 World Cup semifinal against Russia. At the game’s top levels, they’ve won 71 straight.
If you like, you can throw in the Goodwill Games, held in 1986, 1990 and 1994. US record: 14-0.
But in the last two competitions, they’ve dealt with two of the closest games in their history.
Two years ago in the Olympic final, the US trailed France by as many as 10 points in the third quarter before A’ja Wilson put the team on her back. The game ended with France’s Gabby Williams hitting a last-second shot that seemed to have tied the game until we all saw the replay showing her foot on the 3-point arc. France needed three and got two. Game over.
The Guardian’s MBM commentator for that game was clearly out of breath by the end, but I’ve recovered.
This year, Wilson isn’t around to get the team through clutch time. That may explain why the US struggled against a good-but-not-great Italy team in the group stage, giving up a 15-point lead and trading the lead back and forth. The defense held Italy to four points in the final five minutes to hang on for a 55-52 win.
The US looked vulnerable again in yesterday’s semifinal. Spain led 16-9 and was tied 56-56 late in the third quarter, but the defense again clamped down.
Vivement la revanche.
Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s how the US got on in the semi-final:
Breanna Stewart scored 16 points and Kahleah Copper added 13 for the four-time defending champions, who were tied at 58 entering the fourth quarter before finally taking control. Jackie Young added 12 points.
“I think it’s two great teams going to go head-to-head,” Copper said. “You know I’m excited for the matchup. I’m excited for us to be able to compete.”
Spain led 13-4 midway through the first quarter and trailed only 39-36 at halftime. María Conde and Iyana Martín hit three-pointers early in the third as Spain erased the deficit, while Martín’s two free throws with 53 seconds left sent the game into the fourth tied at 58.
Copper and Young scored to open the fourth before Stewart helped the US create separation. The Americans stretched their lead to eight with just over six minutes remaining before Young’s steal and layup made it 76-64 with 1:42 left.
Conde and Martín scored 17 points apiece for Spain, who held the Americans to 40% shooting. The US made only three of 18 three-point attempts, while Caitlin Clark finished with one point and missed all three of her shots from beyond the arc.
You can read the full report below:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/sep/12/usa-spain-womens-basketball-world-cup-semi-final
