USA and France Meet Again With a World Championship on the Line

The Women’s Basketball World Cup comes down to a familiar pairing Sunday in Berlin, but the path to the final offered very different warnings about what might be waiting. The United States survived its most serious challenge of the tournament to beat Spain 76-66, while France overwhelmed host Germany 86-64 to reach a World Cup final for the first time in program history. Two years after the Americans escaped France by a single point in the Olympic gold-medal game in Paris, they meet again with another global title at stake.

Spain gave the United States exactly the kind of game it had largely avoided since its narrow group-stage win over Italy. The Americans fell behind 9-1 almost immediately as Spain’s pressure disrupted the offense, recovered behind their second unit and took a three-point lead into halftime, but never managed to create real separation. Spain kept coming, with Iyana Martín and María Conde driving the offense, and a late third-quarter push erased the remaining U.S. advantage to send the game to the fourth tied at 58.