BERLIN – It wouldn’t be the FIBA World Cup without the U.S. in the semifinals. The Americans dominated Hungary in Thursday’s quarterfinal, 108-56, to produce their 13th consecutive semifinal appearance, dating back to 1979. The young group is continuing to grow and gel together now through four games in Germany. Each one is a new lesson.
“There are some things that we need to continue to grow in on both ends,” U.S. coach Kara Lawson said after the Hungary win. “We’ve talked about some of those during the game as it was happening, and if we look at the film, we’ll find some more. You’re already playing the world’s best, and now that we are in the semifinals, it is going to be something – the competition at this level. We need to be better than we were today to win.”
Coach Lawson noted that all of the team’s players are either the leading scorers or near the leading scorers for their respective WNBA teams. Thus, they are accustomed to enjoying big nights and playing off one another.
“Our chemistry continues to build,” Lawson added. “We are 10 days in now with each other, and we are getting a good feel. I didn’t think we did as good of a job in pool play of being disciplined (on defending without fouling) by our standards. I thought tonight we were exceptional. We have standards that we want to hit, and those are not depending on who we are playing. They are depending on things we want to do. We try to stay focused on those things to win games.”
Jackie Young is leading the Americans with 11 points per game through the quarterfinals. She is looking forward to having off on Friday before Saturday’s semifinal.
“It’s a chilling point,” Young said. “I am just trying to get the most rest as possible and some recovery. We need to get better off of each game. The more we play, the more comfortable we are with one another. We need to get some easy buckets in transition.”
While Young won the gold medal in the Paris Olympics, Kahleah Copper is one of only three players on the roster who also won the previous World Cup in Australia four years ago. Breanna Stewart and Chelsea Gray are the others.
“Winning is fun,” Copper said. “There is nothing like winning at the highest level, and we know what it takes. When that ball is moving, we want to get the best possible shot. Everyone on this roster, we know what they are doing on their respective teams. But, when you come here, you sacrifice a little bit of that, and we get from good to great.”
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A milestone World Cup for Hungary
Hungary was competing in its first World Cup since 1998, and the future looks bright for the nation of only 9.5 million. Minnesota Lynx forward Dorka Juhász led the team in scoring at 12.5 per game. Her 14.2 rebounds per game are third in the World Cup behind Puerto Rico’s Imani McGee-Stafford and China’s Han Xu.
The former UConn player was also the EuroLeague MVP last season. In addition, Kinga Josepovits is an 18-year-old center who stands 6’5 and scored nine points versus the U.S.
“At first, I thought it was the mentality of what they are bringing,” Josepovits said. “On defense, we couldn’t find the gaps to make passes. On offense, they have a great shooting percentage, so we had to find other ways how to stop them.”
Reka Lelik also scored more than 12 points per game for the Hungarians, who will next compete in EuroBasket qualifying this November. The team is in the same group as Germany, Denmark and Portugal, with the top two heading to the main event next June.
