U.S. Women's Basketball Team Answers Italy Scare With 105-64 Rout of Czechia, Sweeps World Cup Group

Twenty-four hours after needing every one of its 55 points to survive Italy, the United States women's basketball team looked like the defending champion again. Breanna Stewart scored 19 points in barely 16 minutes on the floor and the Americans routed Czechia 105-64 on Monday in Berlin, closing out group play at the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup at 3-0 and advancing directly to Thursday's quarterfinals.

The margin was the largest the Americans have posted at this World Cup and stood in stark contrast to Sunday's 55-52 escape against Italy, a game the U.S. staff has already singled out as a warning sign rather than a one-off.

The Numbers

Stewart set the tone immediately, scoring 11 points in the first 10 minutes as the U.S. built a 29-15 lead after one quarter — its highest-scoring period of the tournament. She finished with 19 points, seven rebounds and six assists, according to the official FIBA game record, missing a World Cup triple-double by one assist. Napheesa Collier, playing in her first World Cup, added 12 points and six rebounds, seven of those points coming in a second quarter that pushed the lead to 57-33 at halftime.

The Americans shot 53 percent from the field, assisted on roughly three-quarters of their made baskets, and got every player on the 12-woman roster onto the scoresheet — six of them in double figures, including Angel Reese (13), Jackie Young (12), Paige Bueckers (10) and Sonia Citron (10). Czechia, which finished pool play winless at 0-3, was led by Eliska Joklova's 19 points but shot just 33 percent as a team, according to USA Basketball's official recap of the game. The result was the Americans' 33rd consecutive win at the World Cup, a streak that stretches back to a semifinal loss to Russia in 2006.

How We Got Here

The blowout arrived as a direct answer to Sunday's scare. Italy pushed the Americans to the brink in Berlin before falling 55-52, a game wire-service coverage described as the closest the U.S. has played at a World Cup in two decades, and by shooting percentage among the worst offensive outings the program has produced at this level in a half-century. The U.S. shot roughly 29 percent from the field and 8 percent from three-point range against Italy's zone defense, numbers that alarmed a coaching staff accustomed to margins measured in double digits.

Head coach Kara Lawson did not soften her assessment afterward, telling reporters the effort level, not just the shooting, had been the problem. Against Czechia, the response was immediate: better ball movement, a faster pace, and a defense that held its opponent to 32 percent shooting across the two games combined.

Some of the difficulty is structural. This year's field expanded to 32 teams, with the top two finishers in each of eight groups advancing straight to the quarterfinals and everyone else funneled into a new qualification round rather than being eliminated outright — a format designed to reward strong pool play while still giving mid-tier programs a second chance. Monday's rout, combined with China's 71-51 win over Italy in the group's other final game, left the U.S. alone atop Group D and sent Italy and China into that qualification round, while Czechia, held winless across all three of its games, was eliminated. For Czechia, the exit closed out just the program's fourth World Cup appearance; its best finish remains a silver medal won on home soil in 2010, the only other time the tournament was held in the Czech Republic. For a U.S. program that has not lost a group-stage or knockout game at this tournament since a 2006 semifinal defeat to Russia, finishing 3-0 without needing the qualification round was as much about the calendar — an extra day of rest before Thursday's quarterfinal — as it was about pride.

Reaction

Lawson's postgame message following the Italy game framed the week's larger stakes for a program chasing a fifth consecutive world title.

"Let this be the last time that a team plays with more passion than us throughout the course of the game. Let this be the last time that all 12 don't show up to compete at a high level."

The message appeared to land. Stewart's early scoring burst against Czechia set a tone the Americans never relinquished, and the bench, which had struggled to find offense against Italy's pressure, scored freely from the opening minutes.

What Happens Next

By finishing group play undefeated, the U.S. earned the tournament's most valuable prize outside of victories themselves: a bye past the newly instituted qualification round and an extra day of rest before the knockout bracket begins. The Americans will face the winner of Tuesday's game between Hungary and Japan in Thursday's quarterfinal in Berlin, according to NBC Sports' tournament coverage. That qualification-round game is set for Tuesday evening at Berlin Arena — the same building that hosted the Americans' rout of Czechia — with tip-off scheduled for 17:45 local time, according to the tournament's published final-round schedule. A matchup with Japan would be a rematch of the Tokyo Olympic gold-medal game, which the U.S. won 90-75.

For a roster built around WNBA stars pulled away from their franchises during the league's playoff push — Stewart from the New York Liberty, Collier from the Minnesota Lynx among them — the group-stage results offer reassurance that the Italy game was an aberration rather than a trend. The Americans have not lost a game at this tournament since 2006 and remain favored to win a fifth straight world title, but Sunday's near-miss is likely to shape how seriously the group treats the knockout rounds still ahead.