BERLIN \u2014 Jackie Young scored 10 points and the U.S. survived its toughest test in the women’s basketball World Cup in two decades with a 55-52 victory over Italy on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Dallas Wings<\/a> star Paige Bueckers<\/a> added seven points off the bench, along with five rebounds, two steals and two blocks. Bueckers hit the U.S. team’s first 3-pointer after the team missed its first 10 attempts from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n The U.S. has won 32 straight World Cup games dating back to a loss to Russia in the 2006 semifinals. Only one team had come within single digits of the Americans during this run, when Australia lost by eight points in 2010.<\/p>\n The Americans (2-0) had to work hard for the victory, putting up the lowest point total in a preliminary-round game since 1971, when they had 51 against France.<\/p>\n The U.S. trailed 50-48 with 4:29 left before going on a 7-0 run. Breanna Stewart, who missed her first eight shots, scored her first basket of the game to put the Americans up 51-50. Young then hit a layup after the U.S. got an offensive foul against Italy on its next possession.<\/p>\n The Americans got another defensive stop and Chelsea Gray hit a jumper to make it a five-point game.<\/p>\n Matilde Villa scored to get Italy back within three with less than a minute to go.<\/p>\n The U.S. had a couple of chances to make it a two-possession lead but couldn’t convert.<\/p>\n Italy (1-1) had one last chance to tie it, but Cecilia Zandalasini’s 3-pointer was off at the buzzer.<\/p>\n Italy\u2019s 2-3 zone defense cause the U.S. fits on offense. The Americans couldn\u2019t get into any rhythm and shot 29% from the field, including going 1 for 12 from 3-point range.<\/p>\n The Americans, who led 30-24 at halftime, saw Italy go on a 11-2 run to start the third quarter and trailed 35-32 before finishing the period up 42-39.<\/p>\n Italy, which lost to the Americans by 34 in a tournament qualifier in March, wouldn\u2019t go away and was up 50-48 in the fourth quarter before the Americans’ final push.<\/p>\n Zandalasini scored 14 points to lead Italy, which is making its first World Cup appearance since 1994.<\/p>\n The Italians won their first game, beating the Czech Republic, and had a loud crowd cheering for them against the U.S. Still, there were fans wearing Caitlin Clark Iowa and Fever jerseys, as well as one in Bueckers\u2019 high school jersey.<\/p>\n In other games on Sunday, China edged the Czech Republic in overtime, Australia topped Turkey and Belgium beat Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n Italy faces China to close out pool play Monday.<\/p>\n The U.S, plays the Czech Republic on Monday hoping to keep its winning streak going.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BERLIN \u2014 Jackie Young scored 10 points and the U.S. survived its toughest test in the women’s basketball…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[18,60261,43251,61074,60263,61,61814,61429,61812,640,799,795,797],"class_list":["post-86160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-berlin","tag-berlin","tag-breanna-stewart","tag-caitlin-clark","tag-cecilia-zandalasini","tag-chelsea-gray","tag-italy","tag-italy-us-world-cup-score","tag-jackie-young","tag-matilde-villa","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-32562-ap-online-other-sports-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}