BERLIN — Breanna Stewart scored 16 points and Kahleah Copper added 13 to help the United States beat Spain, 76-66, on Saturday, advancing to the championship game of the women’s FIBA World Cup.
The Americans will face France in a rematch of the 2024 Paris Olympics gold medal game that the US won by a point.
The US has won 35 straight games in the World Cup going back to a loss to Russia in the semifinals in 2006. Now the Americans are one win away from a fifth consecutive title. That would match the former Soviet Union for the most consecutive championships.
After cruising through their past two games, the US struggled against Spain as the Americans couldn’t get any flow on offense.
The game was tied at 58 to start the fourth quarter before the Americans scored 12 of the first 14 points to take a 70-60 lead — their biggest of the game with 5:20 left.
Spain could only get within 8 the rest of the way.
The Americans spent a lot of the game at the foul line, making 27 of 35.
This was the first meeting in the World Cup between the teams since the US topped Spain for the gold medal in 2014. That was Stewart’s debut with the national team.
Spain will play host Germany in the bronze-medal game on Sunday.