{"id":518053,"date":"2026-03-12T00:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T00:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/518053\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T00:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T00:28:12","slug":"caitlin-clark-gets-double-double-as-angel-reese-usa-cruise-past-senegal-in-fiba-world-cup-qualifier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/518053\/","title":{"rendered":"Caitlin Clark Gets Double-Double as Angel Reese, USA Cruise Past Senegal in FIBA World Cup Qualifier"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United States cruised to a 110-46 victory over Senegal in a qualifying clash for the 2026 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup.<\/p>\n

The U.S. has already qualified by virtue of winning the Women’s AmeriCup last summer. But these tuneups are a great opportunity for coach Kara Lawson to evaluate all of her options prior to finalizing her World Cup roster.<\/p>\n

The game marked the long-awaited debuts of Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers, who figure to be long-term cornerstones. Both have multiple gold medals with Team USA at the youth level but had yet to suit up for the senior squad.<\/p>\n

Clark in particular had to shake off some rust. Her most recent appearance with the Indiana Fever was last July.<\/p>\n

“I feel like I’ve put myself in the best possible shape I could be in at this point,” she told reporters<\/a> Monday. “The first game is the hardest, but once you get in kind of a flow of things, you figure things out.”<\/p>\n

Clark certainly didn’t look like a player who missed months of action, putting up a double-double. She scored 17 points and dished out 12 assists.<\/p>\n

The way in which the 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year facilitated the offense was particularly encouraging, and it bodes well for the Fever looking ahead to the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

Bueckers made a positive impact in her 14 minutes on the floor as well. She had nine points, four rebounds, three assists and one steal.<\/p>\n

With 1:01 left in the third quarter, Bueckers sank a three-pointer off a feed from Clark. That offered a snapshot of what the next few years could look like for the U.S. backcourt.<\/p>\n

Rhyne Howard dropped a game-high 21 points for Team USA as she tries to make an impression on Lawson and the staff. A silver medalist in the 3×3 event at the 2024 Summer Olympics, this is the time for the Atlanta Dream star to play her way onto what will be a loaded World Cup roster.<\/p>\n

Angel Reese, meanwhile, showcased her best skill, collecting eight rebounds on top of scoring six points in 17:34 of action. Like Howard, she’s aiming to earn her first taste of World Cup competition this summer.<\/p>\n

All in all, this wasn’t a stiff test, but Lawson will be encouraged by such a dominant showing. The U.S. led for nearly 39 of the 40 minutes.<\/p>\n

Team USA shot 60.7 percent from the field and knocked down 17 threes. It also forced 20 turnovers, turning those into 28 points at the other end of the floor.<\/p>\n

The United States is back in action Thursday night against Puerto Rico. The game will tip off at 8 p.m. ET with coverage on truTV and HBO Max.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United States cruised to a 110-46 victory over Senegal in a qualifying clash for the 2026 FIBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-518053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}