{"id":882708,"date":"2026-09-07T01:22:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T01:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/882708\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T01:22:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T01:22:17","slug":"us-overcome-poor-shooting-and-italys-eye-poke-claims-in-edgy-fiba-world-cup-win-usa-womens-basketball-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/882708\/","title":{"rendered":"US overcome poor shooting and Italy\u2019s eye-poke claims in edgy Fiba World Cup win | USA women’s basketball team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jackie Young had a big fourth quarter and Breanna Stewart made her only basket of the game to put \u2060the United States up for good, helping the Americans escape with a 55-52 win over Italy in the Fiba Women\u2019s World \u2060Cup on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The \u200bUS (2-0), who clinched a quarter-final berth with the victory, led only 42-39 after three quarters and fell behind by two points on three occasions in the fourth. Stewart\u2019s jumper, assisted by Young, gave the Americans a 51-50 lead with 3:20 to go, and Young hit a \u2060floater on their next possession. Chelsea Gray made a pull-up with 1:07 left for an \u200bimportant cushion, but Italy hit a quick \u200ctwo-pointer in response to \u200ccut it to 55-52. Gray missed a shot on the next US trip but Young \u200ccorralled the rebound to help her team bleed more clock.<\/p>\n

Italy\u2019s Cecilia Zandalasini, who missed a three-pointer to tie the game with three seconds left, was seen shouting at the referees after the buzzer as she argued she had been poked in the eye on the play. She expressed contrition after the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to apologize for how I reacted in the end,\u201d said Zandalasini. \u201cTo the opposing team, it was a lot of emotions today, but I should have kept them inside of me a little better. I want to apologize to the referees. It\u2019s just when I wear this jersey, it\u2019s just a different beast that comes out of me, and now I feel embarrassed for how I reacted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Young scored six of her team-high 10 points in the fourth quarter. \u200cAngel Reese scored eight points, Stewart grabbed 11 rebounds to help offset her 1-of-9 shooting day, and Paige Bueckers added seven points, five boards, \u200btwo assists, two steals and two blocks for the US. Caitlin Clark shot 0-for-6 from the floor and scored one point.<\/p>\n

The Americans won despite shooting a woeful 16 of 56 (28.6%) overall and 1 for 12 on 3-pointers. They outscored the Italians 22-14 at the foul \u2060line.<\/p>\n

Zandalasini of the WNBA\u2019s Golden State Valkyries had 14 points and \u200bseven boards to guide Italy (1-1).<\/p>\n

The \u200bUS narrowly avoided \u200btheir first World Cup loss since the 2006 semi-finals. It marked their \u200bclosest World Cup \u200cgame in 20 \u200byears, per NBC Sports.<\/p>\n

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The \u200bAmericans conclude Group D play on Monday against the Czech Republic (0-2). The other game will pit Italy against China (1-1) with both teams still holding a chance to advance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jackie Young had a big fourth quarter and Breanna Stewart made her only basket of the game to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":882709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-882708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=882708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}