76-66 defeat of Spain<\/a> in the other semifinal Saturday.<\/p>\nWilliams told reporters beforehand she had \u201cno preference\u201d which team France will face on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The former UConn standout has been starring throughout the tournament with double figures in each of her five games. She has also supported teammates and pushed the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just great to have her as an example \u2026 of consistency, of just hard work and and aggressiveness throughout all the game,\u201d center Dominique Malonga told reporters. \u201cIt was a tough night for me, and just having her talking to me and pouring into me, having her energy helped a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
France\u2019s win over Germany was undoubtedly the toughest so far with the home team receiving loud support from the partisan home fans at Berlin Arena. It was the first game in the tournament in which the French failed to break the 90-point mark.<\/p>\n
But Williams was still proud of her team\u2019s achievement \u2014 France had never played a women\u2019s FIBA World Cup semifinal before so Sunday\u2019s final will also be the country\u2019s first.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m proud of the fight in this group, the determination, the encouragement during the matches, and simply their effort,\u201d Williams said. \u201cWe were up against a good team tonight. We\u2019ve had matches that were a bit easier so to speak, but I\u2019m glad we didn\u2019t panic just because we didn\u2019t win by 20 points right away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams scored all but one of her five free throws despite the efforts from the hostile crowd to put her off.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been through quite a few moments like that. I know what that kind of pressure is like. I know what\u2019s needed in those moments,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
If Williams had any doubts, she didn\u2019t show them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not going to show weaknesses on the court, we\u2019re not going to show doubts. If we did, our opponents would eat us alive,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
No thoughts of Olympic revenge<\/p>\n
Janelle Sala\u00fcn, who had a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds against Germany, said the 2024 Olympic final was in the past and would have no bearing on Sunday\u2019s decider.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was two years ago,\u201d Sala\u00fcn said of the Olympics. \u201cThere were different people involved, different players, so now we\u2019re focusing on tomorrow and the here and now.\u201d<\/p>\n
No pressure<\/p>\n
Whatever happens Sunday, France is set for its best World Cup finish. France hasn\u2019t won a medal since the inaugural tournament in 1953, when the team finished third in the final round.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means a lot. This is the first time we\u2019re taking it to this level,\u201d France coach Jean-Aim\u00e9 Toupane said. \u201cYou guys can see how French basketball all around the world is improving.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marine Johann\u00e8s, another of the team\u2019s stars, said there was no pressure to take home gold.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I\u2019m (being) honest we have nothing to lose,\u201d Johann\u00e8s said. \u201cWe actually know they are a great team. They won every World Cup for years and years. We are playing with these players all season in W(NBA) actually. We know how good they are. It\u2019s one game, nothing to lose. We are going to play hard and we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
See AP\u2019s full WNBA coverage here<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By CIAR\u00c1N FAHEY BERLIN (AP) \u2014 After enduring heartbreak in the women\u2019s basketball final at the 2024 Olympics,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":845762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-845761","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\/845761","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=845761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}