Puerto Rico pushed China to the final possessions, but Han Xu decided the fourth quarter.

She scored 14 points in the period and repeatedly answered Puerto Rico’s pressure before Xinyu Luo’s corner three created the separation China needed to survive and advance to face France.

Puerto Rico stretches China from the start

Puerto Rico’s offensive idea was clear immediately.

It opened in five-out spacing, trying to pull Xu away from the basket and create driving lanes behind her. San Antonio took advantage first, scoring Puerto Rico’s opening six points and consistently looking to turn the corner before China could establish its preferred defensive shape.

China answered with shooting. It opened 4-of-4 from three and used that early perimeter efficiency to stay ahead despite Puerto Rico’s pressure after made baskets.

The complexion changed when Zhang entered for the final four minutes of the quarter. China shifted into its zone, and Puerto Rico initially struggled to solve it, committing three turnovers during that stretch. All seven of Puerto Rico’s late points came either in transition or from baseline out-of-bounds situations rather than sustained half-court offense.

China led 24-21 after one, having made four threes while also holding a 12-6 advantage in points in the paint.

Puerto Rico starts making the zone move

Puerto Rico spent the second quarter searching for ways to change the geometry at both ends.

Defensively, it mixed coverages. In man-to-man, Puerto Rico switched away from the ball to preserve size closer to the basket, while also showing a hybrid 1-3-1/3-2 zone. Offensively, the adjustment against Zhang was even more important.

When she returned with 4:17 remaining, Puerto Rico immediately doubled her on catches inside. Zhang passed well out of the pressure, but Puerto Rico was also beginning to understand how to attack China’s zone more effectively. Instead of driving directly into its length, the ball moved through the high post and short corner, forcing Zhang to cover more ground and make decisions away from the basket.

Back-to-back Puerto Rico threes briefly produced a one-point lead, and the perimeter contrast had shifted dramatically from the opening minutes. China went without a three after the 9:32 mark of the quarter, while Puerto Rico reached halftime 4-of-9 from deep.

The game itself became increasingly messy, with 10 combined turnovers in the second quarter, but San Antonio remained the most consistent Puerto Rican creator. She had 14 points and two steals at halftime, while Shuyu Yang was driving China with 12 points and six assists.

China led only 41-40.

Neither team can solve the half court

The third quarter became a grind.

Puerto Rico turned the ball over on its first two possessions, while McGee-Stafford settled for difficult jumpers against Xu rather than consistently forcing the defense to move. More than four minutes produced only a 3-2 Puerto Rico edge, and neither side generated sustained quality offense.

China used Zhang selectively, even checking her in specifically for baseline out-of-bounds possessions. She scored four points directly from those situations, offering China an efficient way to use her physical advantage without leaving her exposed for long defensive stretches.

Puerto Rico answered by going to a 2-3 zone when Zhang returned late in the quarter. She scored three points in just over a minute before checking back out, continuing a fascinating game of tactical substitutions and counter-adjustments.

San Antonio buried a three late to send Puerto Rico into the fourth ahead 53-52.

Han Xu decides the fourth

Xu’s three at 7:54 was China’s first since early in the second quarter and started a 5-0 run. McGee-Stafford answered with an and-one, but Xu scored again as the roller to restore a four-point lead with 4:17 remaining.

Coming out of a timeout, San Antonio’s defensive activity helped force consecutive Chinese turnovers and fuel a 4-0 response that tied the game. Xu broke the tie herself with another three at 2:50.

From there, Puerto Rico’s execution began to unravel. Guirantes committed back-to-back turnovers and followed them with a difficult shot, allowing China to finally open some space. Luo then hit the corner three with 1:40 remaining that pushed the margin to six.

San Antonio found McGee-Stafford to cut it to four, and a loose Xu turnover gave Guirantes the chance to make it a two-point game with 25.7 seconds remaining. Yang calmly made both free throws at the other end, and Puerto Rico used too much time on its final possession to create another realistic comeback opportunity.

China survives

Xu finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds, including 14 in the fourth quarter, while Yang added 15 points and 11 assists and Zhang produced 13 points in only nine minutes.

China advances to face France in the quarterfinals.

Puerto Rico’s run also deserves to be remembered for what Trinity San Antonio produced in its final game. She finished with 24 points, nine rebounds, seven assists and five steals, becoming the first player in Women’s World Cup history to record that combination in a single game. The numbers were extraordinary, but they only begin to capture her impact.

San Antonio was Puerto Rico’s creator, disruptor and emotional engine, repeatedly dragging them back into a game that could easily have slipped away. Puerto Rico leaves the tournament just three points short of the quarterfinals, but San Antonio leaves having written her name into World Cup history.

There are nights when basketball seems to resist you.

You know what you want to do. You know the reads, the actions, the places you are supposed to reach. You care desperately about doing it well. Yet for reasons both tactical and human, the game keeps pulling everything away from you. The pass arrives a fraction late. The lane closes. The frustration grows. The basket seems smaller.

For three quarters, Italy lived inside that feeling.

Australia was better. Clearly better. The Opals attacked Italy’s defense through the pick-and-roll, consistently touched the paint, moved the ball beautifully and turned those advantages into trips to the free-throw line. Isobel Borlase produced a magnificent performance, and even after Ezi Magbegor left the game in the first quarter and did not return, Australia kept finding solutions and built a lead that reached 26.

Italy looked frustrated, disconnected and, at times, almost trapped inside the game it desperately wanted to play.

Then Italy scored 31 points in the fourth quarter.

And with 4.2 seconds remaining, Francesca Pasa ran almost the entire length of the floor, put a layup off the glass to tie the game, and watched the ball roll around the rim before falling out.

Australia survived, 82-80, and deservedly moves into the quarterfinals.

Italy goes home.

Basketball can be cruel enough for both of those things to be true at once.

Australia finds the game Italy cannot stop

With Alanna Smith already ruled out for the rest of the tournament, Australia entered another elimination game without one of its most important half-court pieces. The opening possession nevertheless established exactly what the Opals wanted, using a well-designed set to create a low-post touch for Magbegor and an immediate basket.

Italy picked up full court from the beginning and searched for Lorela Cubaj inside, while both teams attacked quickly enough to produce a 7-6 Italian lead in less than two minutes. That early success did not last. Australia began getting into the paint far too comfortably, with its pick-and-roll offense creating problems possession after possession and its empty-side actions proving particularly difficult for Italy to contain.

Magbegor left the game with 5:51 remaining in the first quarter and did not return. Losing another major frontcourt player could easily have disrupted Australia, but instead the Opals produced an 8-0 run that forced an Italian timeout.

Italy’s own problems were growing. Matilde Villa was barely involved early, the half-court offense struggled to create clean advantages, and Italy went almost five minutes without scoring. Even when it shifted into a 2-3 zone late in the quarter, unnecessary fouls kept giving Australia another route to points.

Six of Italy’s 13 first-quarter points came after turnovers. In the settled half court, very little was working. Australia went 7-of-10 on twos and 12-of-15 at the line, while Italy managed only 3-of-12 inside the arc.

The Opals led 26-13.

Borlase punishes every opening

Italy finally found something in the second quarter.

Pasa hit an early three that helped trigger a 7-0 run, cutting the deficit to eight and forcing Australia to stop the game. Italy leaned increasingly on its 2-3 zone, trying to change the rhythm of an Australian offense that had been finding the paint too easily.

Australia kept finding the next answer.

Alex Fowler stopped the run with a basket, and the Opals continued sharing the ball well enough to create closeout after closeout. When Italy committed extra attention inside, Australia moved the defense and attacked the next rotation before it could recover.

The middle of the quarter became a duel of individual bursts. Costanza Verona scored six straight to pull Italy within seven, only for Borlase to respond with six consecutive points of her own and restore a 13-point margin.

Borlase was spectacular.

She reached halftime with 23 points, attacking every opening Italy gave her and becoming the scoring engine of an Australian offense that rarely allowed the defense to settle. Australia had also attempted 22 free throws by the break, converting 18, compared with Italy’s 8-of-10.

That disparity was partly the product of Italy’s growing frustration. The Italians were a step late defensively too often, and Australia kept turning those small delays into contact, rotations and high-value opportunities.

The halftime score was 48-33.

Australia had complete command.

Italy reaches the point where basketball feels impossibly hard

The third quarter looked as though it might end the game completely.

Australia opened with five straight points while Italy immediately added more turnovers. Zitina Aokuso gave the Opals another imposing presence around the basket, and Australian guards continued reaching the rim without enough resistance.

Australia went to its own 2-3 zone defensively, and Italy struggled badly to make it move. The ball was not shifting defenders enough, good looks were difficult to generate and the margin eventually reached 26.

This was the part of the night that felt heavier than a tactical problem.

Italy had spent the tournament showing exactly who it was: physical, stubborn, intelligent and absolutely willing to drag more talented opponents into uncomfortable basketball. It had pushed USA to the final possessions. It had found ways to survive games without beautiful offense. It had made people believe.

Now nothing seemed to work.

Yet Italy closed the quarter on a 7-2 run.

The score was still 69-49. Twenty points remained between the teams. There was no sensible reason to believe one final quarter could undo everything that had happened during the first three.

Italy apparently did not care about sensible reasons.

Thirty-one points of refusal

The fourth quarter began with Italy playing as though the previous 30 minutes had never happened.

Vittoria Blasigh hit a three during a 9-2 opening run that cut the margin to 13. The defensive intensity rose sharply, Australia began turning the ball over and possessions that had once ended with comfortable Opals attacks suddenly became difficult.

Italy kept coming.

The threes started falling. Drives reached the basket. Cubaj and Olbis Futo André supplied important scores from the frontcourt. The pressure that had looked ineffective earlier in the evening now produced hesitation.

Most importantly, Italy stopped looking like a team burdened by everything that had gone wrong.

It looked free.

Verona eventually buried a three with 1:09 remaining to tie the game at 77-77.

A team that had trailed by 26 had erased every point of it.

Australia deserves enormous credit for what happened next because surviving a comeback like that requires its own kind of composure. Borlase found Aokuso on the roll to restore the lead, and after an Italian miss, Australia successfully challenged a call before Sami Whitcomb Wilson went to the line and made both free throws.

With 8.3 seconds left, Australia led by four.

And then came the moment that may stay with me longer than anything else in this game.

Vittoria Blasigh and the reason we love this game

Blasigh is 22 years old.

She gives Italy an extraordinary 13 points in only 15 minutes, making all three of her attempts from beyond the arc. With Italy down four and its World Cup almost over, she received the ball after the timeout and launched from well behind the three-point line.

It went in.

Of course it went in.

For a fraction of a second, she celebrated so naturally that she almost lost track of the defensive assignment waiting at the other end. Not because she did not understand the situation. Not because she did not care.

Because she is 22 years old, had just made an outrageous shot in an elimination game at the World Cup, and joy arrived before thought could catch it.

That smile was basketball.

There is something beautiful about the imperfection of that moment. Elite sport often asks us to talk about players as if they are machines built to execute. Every rotation must be perfect, every emotional response controlled, every possession processed instantly.

But the whole reason any of this matters is because people care.

They dream about these shots. They spend years trying to become good enough to take them. They feel fear, pressure, frustration and joy, sometimes within seconds of one another.

Blasigh made the shot because she was good enough to take it.

She smiled because she loved what she had just done.

Basketball should always have room for both.

Millimeters

Borlase split the free throws at the other end, leaving Italy down two with 4.2 seconds remaining.

Pasa took the ball and ran.

There was no time for an elaborate final set or a sequence of counters. She went the length of the floor, reached the basket and put the ball softly off the backboard.

For a moment, it was going in.

The ball reached the rim, rolled toward the basket and seemed ready to drop. Five more minutes were sitting there. A 26-point comeback, overtime, one more chance for Italy to continue this impossible night.

Then the ball came out.

And the pain of that moment did not belong only to Italy.

Borlase, the 21-year-old hero of the night, raised her arms because Australia had won. She had scored 30 points, carried the Opals through enormous adversity and earned every bit of that celebration. But look around her and the reaction is almost extraordinary. Australian players seem momentarily perplexed themselves, happy to have survived but still absorbing what they had just seen. For a second, winner and loser appeared caught inside the same disbelief.

On the sideline, Sandy Brondello had her hands on her head.

It was the reaction of almost everyone watching.

How did that not go in?

That is part of the strange beauty of sport. Australia had done its job. It deserved to celebrate. Italy had done almost everything required to create one of the great comebacks of the tournament. Pasa had reached the basket and given the ball every opportunity to fall.

And still, the basketball gods offered no overtime.

Only the rim.

Only the ball rolling out.

Only two teams standing there trying to process what had just happened.

There are misses where the process is poor, where the defense forces the wrong decision or a possession falls apart. This was not one of them. Pasa attacked the moment and gave Italy exactly the chance it needed. The difference between another five minutes and elimination was measured in millimeters.

Only the best players in the world ever earn the right to take a shot carrying that much weight.

And sometimes, as spectators, we are lucky simply to be there for it.

To watch a game like this, to feel the hope build, to experience the disbelief of the comeback and then share that final second with players on both sides is one of the privileges of loving basketball. It does not matter whether it happens at a World Cup, in a local gym or on an empty court somewhere nobody is watching.

Sometimes we are lucky enough to be part of something.

Basketball gives us those moments.

Australia earned this

None of Italy’s fourth-quarter magic should obscure how well Australia played.

The Opals were the superior team for three quarters and created their advantage through excellent basketball. Their pick-and-roll offense repeatedly broke down Italy’s defense, the ball moved well enough to create favorable closeouts and their aggression generated 37 free-throw attempts, of which they made 27.

Australia finished with 25 assists, another reflection of how well the offense operated for most of the night.

Borlase was exceptional with 30 points, carrying an enormous offensive load after Magbegor left the game. Aokuso added 15 points and six rebounds, while Steph Talbot produced 14 points, nine rebounds and five assists.

Australia also deserves credit for surviving the psychological force of that fourth quarter. Once a 26-point advantage disappears and the opponent ties the game, the previous three quarters no longer protect you. Australia still found the roll for Aokuso, defended the next possession, won the challenge and made enough free throws to escape.

The Opals earned their quarterfinal place.

Italy made us believe

Verona finished with 23 points. Blasigh produced 13 in those remarkable 15 minutes. Italy somehow scored 80 even with Cecilia Zandalasini and Villa, its two leading scorers, combining for only 14.

But numbers cannot really explain why this one hurts.

Italy’s World Cup ended on a missed layup after it had spent an entire quarter refusing the obvious ending.

For three quarters, the game seemed to be taking something away from them. The offense would not cooperate. Australia was better. Frustration was visible. The margin kept growing.

That feeling exists at every level of basketball. Sometimes you love the game desperately and it does not seem to love you back.

The special teams keep playing anyway.

Italy did more than keep playing. It punched back against that feeling until an impossible game was tied with 69 seconds remaining. A 22-year-old buried a shot from another postcode and smiled like a child who had just discovered basketball for the first time. Pasa ran the floor with the season in her hands and came within the width of a rim of giving them five more minutes.

I am sure none of this will mean much to the Italian players tonight.

They wanted to win.

They came close enough to touch it.

And then it disappeared.

But there will be another tournament. Blasigh will be older. Villa will have another season behind her. This young group will have lived through what happened here and carry it with them.

And when Italy takes the floor again, there will be people waiting to watch.

Because this team made its country proud.

Because it made the rest of us believe.

And because after a game like this, how could you not want to see what they do next?

And then there were eight.

Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Spain, USA, (China/Puerto Rico and Italy/Australia) have already booked their places in the FIBA Women’s World Cup quarterfinals.

From here, the tournament changes again. There is no next round guaranteed, no opportunity to recover from one poor stretch and no room for an opponent to expose the same weakness twice. Four games will decide which four teams remain in the medal hunt.

Here is what to expect from every possible quarterfinal matchup.

USA vs Hungary

Hungary produced an excellent team performance against Japan to reach the quarterfinals. Réka Lelik carried the offense early, Virág Takács-Kiss took over after halftime and the Hungarians found enough answers even without needing a dominant game from Dorka Juhász.

Their reward is USA.

The matchup presents a very different physical challenge from the ones Hungary faced against Korea and Japan. USA has tremendous size and length across the floor, with no player under 180 cm, and can combine that physical profile with aggressive ball pressure. That is particularly concerning for a Hungarian team averaging 21.5 turnovers per game, the highest mark in the tournament.

The turnover battle could decide whether this remains competitive. USA should have opportunities to pressure Hungary’s guards and make the first pass into the offense difficult. Hungary needs to avoid allowing those mistakes to become transition chances because USA has looked considerably less comfortable when forced to generate everything against a set half-court defense. Italy already showed how dramatically the American offense can change when easy points disappear and possessions become more physical.

For Hungary, the challenge is not simply having Juhász and Takács-Kiss available inside. It is finding them in advantageous situations. USA has the bodies to defend both without compromising the rest of the floor, so Hungary’s guards must handle the pressure, create clean passing angles and get the offense far enough into its actions for that frontcourt pairing to matter.

If Hungary can protect the ball and force USA to spend most of the afternoon attacking five defenders, there is at least a route toward making the game uncomfortable. If the turnovers start piling up and USA gets into transition, that route becomes extremely narrow.

USA has the clear edge.

China vs France

China beats Puerto Rico, and it will once again find itself among the final eight of women’s basketball.

Waiting there would be a French team that has yet to face a sustained challenge in this tournament.

China possesses something no other team can quite replicate: a frontcourt featuring Han Xu and Zhang Ziyu, two players over 205 cm who can fundamentally alter how opponents defend. Han combines height with mobility and skill, while Zhang changes the geography of possessions simply by establishing position near the basket.

The question is whether China can consistently access those weapons against one of the tournament’s most disruptive defenses.

France owns the second-best defensive rating in the competition, while China sits second-to-last in turnover percentage. That is a dangerous combination. France pressures the ball, closes passing lanes and can turn one loose entry into points at the other end before China has any chance to establish its preferred defense.

Zhang’s minutes create another fascinating tactical question. China regularly uses a 2-3 zone when she is on the floor, but France has shot an extraordinary 48.5 percent from three and is lethal in transition. France will want to attack before the zone can establish its shape, and if the threes continue falling once China gets set, Zhang’s impact can be pulled farther away from the areas where she is most valuable.

China nevertheless has tools that make this matchup different from anything France has faced so far. If Han and Zhang can force France to alter its normal defensive rules and China can keep the turnover count manageable, there are ways to create genuine problems.

France would still enter as the clear favorite, but China has a physical variable that cannot simply be ignored.

Belgium vs Germany

Germany made history against Korea, reaching the FIBA Women’s World Cup quarterfinals for the first time in program history.

Now comes Belgium.

There are interesting similarities between these teams. Both are comfortable running when transition is available but do not depend on it. Both can operate deep into the half court, use constant ball and player movement and search patiently for the next advantage rather than treating the first action as the final one.

That should make execution especially important. The game may come down less to which team creates the first advantage and more to which one recognizes what comes next. Belgium has been exceptional at making the next pass, moving defenders twice and turning small openings into high-value shots. Germany showed against Korea that it can do something similar, particularly once its high-low game and frontcourt passing became central to the offense.

The individual battle between Emma Meesseman and Nyara Sabally should carry significant weight. Sabally gives Germany the mobility and physicality to challenge Meesseman in different areas of the floor, but defending Belgium’s star is never simply a one-on-one assignment. Meesseman’s ability to facilitate, screen, relocate and punish help means Germany has to defend everything happening around her as well.

Belgium’s guard play gives it another important advantage. Julie Allemand and Julie Vanloo can control possessions in different ways, and Belgium’s ability to create from the perimeter could become decisive if Germany succeeds in matching the frontcourt battle.

Still, Germany will have its home crowd, a physical profile capable of making Belgium work and the confidence of knowing it has beaten this core before, winning 83-69 in the Olympic group stage.

Belgium should be favored, but this could be one of the trickier quarterfinals on the board.

Australia vs Spain

Australia survives Italy, and the quarterfinal against Spain becomes another battle over who decides where the game is played.

Australia wants to run. The Opals are at their best when rebounds and turnovers become immediate attacks, allowing their athleticism to create advantages before the defense can organize. Their half-court offense has been less reliable, and the absence of Alanna Smith makes those possessions even more challenging.

Spain can play fast when the opportunity is there, but it does not need to. It is perfectly comfortable getting into five-on-five offense and using well-designed actions to manipulate a set defense. That makes pace control central to the matchup. Australia needs enough transition opportunities to avoid spending the entire afternoon solving Spain possession by possession.

Spain’s set offense could also test Australia’s concentration. It has repeatedly used screening combinations, off-ball movement and counters to create good shots when the first action is covered. Australia will need to remain physical without losing connectivity, because one missed switch or late rotation can allow Spain to turn a defended first option into an easy second one.

At the other end, Australia has often generated its best half-court offense by punishing teams physically with wings and bigs in the post. Spain has the size to match those actions, which could force Australia’s guards to create more than usual if the transition game is limited.

That is another area where Spain may hold an advantage.

Iyana Martín has played like one of the best guards in the tournament and gives Spain a reliable creator when possessions deteriorate. In a quarterfinal that could come down to a handful of late-clock decisions, that matters enormously.

Australia has the athleticism to change the game in transition. Spain has the half-court tools to slow it back down.

This one has every chance to be decided in the dying moments.

Hungary knew exactly what Japan was going to try to take away.

These teams had met during the World Cup qualifiers, when Dorka Juhász overwhelmed Japan with 35 points and nine rebounds in a 77-65 Hungarian win. This time, Japan built much of its defense around denying the same kind of influence.

Hungary simply found other answers. Réka Lelik carried the offense early, Virág Takács-Kiss took over the third quarter and Hungary’s perimeter shooting punished Japan whenever its defense committed too much attention elsewhere.

The reward is a place in the quarterfinals against USA.

Japan takes away the first option, Hungary keeps moving

Hungary opened the game 7-0 and quickly showed it had no interest in forcing the obvious matchup. Japan doubled inside and attacked Hungary’s frontcourt in space, but Hungary kept the ball moving. Lelik became the early beneficiary, scoring eight first-quarter points on 4-of-5 shooting.

At the other end, Hungary had a thoughtful plan for Japan’s pick-and-roll game. It used late switches, with the guard veering back toward the popping big while Hungary’s big took the ball-handler, helping deny one of the spacing advantages Japan was trying to create. The scrambling behind those coverages was strong as well, preventing many of the easy looks Japan normally generates once the defense has been shifted.

Japan still found some clever solutions. It attacked Juhász on closeouts, drove aggressively toward the rim and used the gravity of its shooters to open slips in off-ball actions. The process was often good, but the finishing was not. Japan shot just 22 percent in the opening quarter, while Hungary made 53 percent of its attempts and led 20-12 despite Japan holding a 4-1 advantage on the offensive glass.

Japan’s pressure finally creates a game

Japan continued changing the picture defensively in the second quarter. Side pick-and-rolls were blitzed, full-court pressure appeared after dead balls and Japan briefly went bigger with Maki Takada and Ramu Tokashiki together.

For much of the half, Hungary handled those adjustments well. The ball moved quickly, Japan was repeatedly forced into extra rotations and Hungary consistently found perimeter looks when the defense overcommitted. Across the full first half, Hungary went 8-of-17 from three, a major reason it was able to stay in front even as Japan increased the pressure.

Then a Hungarian technical foul helped open the door for Japan. Hungary committed four turnovers during the stretch that followed, and Japan finally found the transition opportunities it had been searching for. Stephanie Mawuli hit a three on the break, while Japan’s pressure began creating the faster, less controlled possessions it needed.

The most difficult moment of the half had nothing to do with the score. Saki Hayashi left the game after suffering what appeared to be a serious arm injury and did not return. It was a painful way for her World Cup to end after one of the tournament’s most memorable individual performances, when she made nine threes against Mali to set the Women’s World Cup record. Whatever comes next, she leaves this tournament having put her name in its history, and hopefully her recovery is a smooth one.

Japan continued pushing after her departure. A sequence of missed free throws still produced second chances, and the deficit fell to just three before Ágnes Studer hit a three at the halftime buzzer.

Hungary led 37-34 despite Japan shooting only 10-of-33 from the field for the half. Japan had compensated by getting to the line, making 10 of 14 free throws compared with Hungary’s 3-of-6, while Hungary’s 8-of-17 shooting from three provided the scoring efficiency that kept it ahead.

Takács-Kiss changes the second half

Hungary started the third quarter the same way it had started the first, with a 7-0 run.

This time, the separation came through Takács-Kiss. She had gone scoreless in the first half, but Hungary began actively searching for her after the break and she responded with 10 points in the quarter.

Japan could not generate enough offense to match her production. It scored only four points over the first seven-plus minutes of the period, and although Norika Konno eventually provided six points during a late response, Hungary had already rebuilt a comfortable advantage.

The foul line widened it further. Japan committed several avoidable fouls, and Hungary punished them by going 11-of-12 at the stripe in the quarter. What had been a three-point game at halftime became a 58-45 Hungarian lead entering the fourth.

Takács-Kiss had given Hungary exactly what it needed.

Hungary keeps Japan from finding another run

Japan’s best route back remained speed, and Hungary did an excellent job preventing transition possessions from developing throughout the game. When necessary, it used fouls to stop breaks before Japan could exploit an unsettled defense.

Japan still searched for solutions in the half court, including a 1-4 alignment into central pick-and-roll with smart cutting around the action. But its scoring never became consistent enough. Hungary’s defense kept forcing difficult stretches, and its bench was also quick to use timeouts whenever Japan appeared capable of putting consecutive possessions together.

Takács-Kiss hit a three to stretch the lead to 17 with 5:26 remaining. Konno answered from deep, prompting another Hungarian timeout, before Juhász contributed six important fourth-quarter points. Dóra Kányási then buried the three with 2:54 left that effectively ended Japan’s hopes.

Hungary had enough answers

Lelik finished with 23 points and eight rebounds, setting the tone when Hungary needed someone else to lead the offense. Takács-Kiss scored all 17 of her points in the second half and added eight rebounds, becoming the decisive scorer after halftime.

Hungary’s shooting was another major separator. It finished 11-of-25 from three, while Japan went just 7-of-33. Kokoro Tanaka was Japan’s only double-digit scorer, while Rui Machida turned back the clock as a creator with 12 assists.

Japan had stretches of excellent basketball. Its pressure changed the second quarter, its movement created intelligent openings and it continued searching for ways to attack Hungary’s defensive coverages. The shots simply did not fall often enough to sustain those stretches.

Hungary moves on to face USA in the quarterfinals.

For Japan, the World Cup ends here, with Hayashi’s record-setting performance against Mali remaining one of the unforgettable moments of its run. Hopefully, the next news about her is good news.

Germany spent part of the first half playing away from its clearest advantage, then corrected course decisively.

Korea’s pressure created some early discomfort, and Germany briefly helped by settling for too many perimeter shots. Once the hosts started consistently getting the ball closer to the basket, using cuts, high-low actions and their frontcourt mobility to attack Korea’s coverages, the game changed completely.

Germany went just 5-of-25 from three but shot 63 percent on twos, a contrast that captured where the game was won and sent the hosts into the first Women’s World Cup quarterfinal in program history.

Korea creates an early problem

Germany opened 5-0, but Haeran Lee quickly gave Korea a foothold by scoring its first eight points and helping tie the game at 8-8. Korea’s pressure also began disrupting Germany’s initiation, pushing the hosts away from the areas where their physical advantage mattered most.

Frieda Bühner steadied Germany with a three, free throws and attacks to the basket, helping build a 23-14 lead after one. Korea responded again early in the second through Leeseul Kang, whose eight straight points, including back-to-back threes, cut the margin to 27-22.

That was the point where Germany’s shot selection became the issue. It was taking too many perimeter attempts and allowing Korea to stay close despite owning a much clearer advantage elsewhere.

The high-low game breaks Korea open

Germany began attacking much more directly. The ball started going inside, cuts came behind Korea’s double teams and the connection between Bühner and Marie Gülich became the centerpiece.

Back-to-back high-low actions produced four straight Gülich points, and Germany later returned to the same concept with Gülich cutting down from the elbow for another finish. Korea tried to crowd those catches, but once the second defender committed, Germany consistently found the next pass before the defense could recover.

The lead grew to 46-29 by halftime, with Gülich scoring 14 points on 7-of-8 shooting and Germany holding a 28-12 advantage in points in the paint.

The important part was not simply that Germany was bigger. It had started using that advantage with precision.

Korea changes the coverage, not the problem

Korea spent the second half cycling through answers. It opened with an active zone that collapsed hard toward Germany’s frontcourt, then returned to man-to-man, mixed in doubles and kept changing the defensive picture.

Germany continued moving the defense, making the next pass and reaching productive scoring areas without relying on the three-ball. The margin reached 61-36 midway through the third, while Lina Sontag and Clara Bielefeld added steals that turned stops into easier offense.

By the end of the period, Germany led 68-40. The fourth became about finishing professionally rather than solving anything new, with Luisa Geiselsöder remaining efficient, Nyara Sabally, Sontag and Bühner continuing to contribute around the basket, and Alexandra Wilke adding a three and an and-one.

Germany closed out a 94-56 win without allowing the game to regain any tension.

Germany’s balance tells the story

Gülich led the way with 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting, adding five rebounds and three assists. Bühner scored 17, Geiselsöder added 12 on 6-of-9 shooting, and Sabally produced 10 points, five rebounds and six assists. Leonie Fiebich affected the game everywhere despite scoring only eight, finishing with 11 rebounds, four assists and three blocks.

Lee was excellent for Korea with 21 points on 10-of-13 shooting, while Kang added 17, but there was too little offense beyond them to keep pace.

Germany also finished with 30 assists against only seven turnovers, another reflection of how cleanly it played once the offense began consistently reaching the right areas.

The defending European champions now wait in the quarterfinals. Belgium will enter as favorites, but Germany has legitimate ways to make the matchup difficult through its physicality, versatility and ability to create from multiple positions. There is also recent history between the teams, with Germany beating Belgium 83-69 during the Olympic group stage.

That result guarantees nothing, but Germany has already shown it can hurt this Belgian core and now gets the chance to do it again with a semifinal place on the line.

Only two quarterfinal places remain, and Italy, Australia, Puerto Rico and China have all reached the point where there is nothing left to protect and nowhere left to recover. Win, and the World Cup continues. Lose, and the tournament is over.

The two games could hardly present more different tactical questions. Italy vs Australia is a battle over pace, with Italy wanting to drag the game into the half court and Australia looking to run before the defense is set. Puerto Rico vs China is about whether disruption can neutralize China’s physical advantage.

Two games, two quarterfinal places, and very little separating the teams.

Italy vs Australia

Australia entered the final day of the group stage playing Belgium for first place and, one loss later, now finds itself here. Waiting for the Opals is an Italy team that has already shown it can make life extremely uncomfortable for anyone, including USA.

The first battle is pace. Italy wants a slower, physical half-court game where its defense can stay connected, switching can remove first options and every Australian possession has to work deeper into the clock. Australia is much more dangerous when it can attack early and let its athleticism create advantages before the defense is organized.

That puts a premium on Italy’s transition defense. Australia also loves quick-hitting actions designed to create immediate openings, and if Italy can anticipate those and force the Opals deeper into possessions, the game begins to look much more favorable for the Italians.

Then there is the wing matchup between Steph Talbot and Cecilia Zandalasini, which could become one of the most important individual battles of the day. Both influence far more than the scoring column, and whichever one is able to impose herself more consistently could tilt a game where the margins should be extremely small.

Italy has already shown it can survive ugly possessions, defend through contact and keep games where it wants them, which gives the Italians a very slight edge.

Puerto Rico vs China

Puerto Rico was not supposed to be here, but it beat Türkiye in the decisive group-stage game and earned another night with its World Cup alive. Now comes China, which produced its best performance of the tournament against Italy behind Han Xu, Zhang Ziyu and a defense that made the floor feel increasingly crowded.

Puerto Rico’s problem is clear because so much of its offense has come from attacking inside. Against China, it may need to create more before the defense is fully established, using early attacks and movement to avoid letting possessions become static.

At the other end, China has to take care of the ball. Puerto Rico ranks fourth in the competition in steals and has repeatedly used defensive pressure to create easier offense. If China becomes loose with its entries or initiation, Puerto Rico has the tools to turn those mistakes into exactly the kind of game it wants.

That is where this one could swing. If China protects the ball, Han and Zhang should become increasingly difficult to handle. If Puerto Rico can disrupt the guards and create transition chances, another surprise is very much in play.

Belgium came into the afternoon playing for first place in the group and a place on the opposite side of the bracket from USA.

Then Julie Allemand made history, Emma Meesseman nearly produced a triple-double, and Australia spent most of the game chasing a team that always seemed one decision ahead.

Belgium won 80-68 with perhaps its most complete performance of the World Cup so far. The Cats moved the ball beautifully, defended with real collective sharpness and never allowed one of the tournament’s most physical teams to dictate the game.

Allemand entered five assists away from becoming the Women’s World Cup’s all-time leader. She reached the record before halftime. Meesseman finished with 22 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists.

Together, they gave the game its shape.

Belgium’s first pass was rarely the point, and neither was the first screen. One action bent the defense, another forced a new decision, and by the time the shot came, Australia had often been asked to solve two or three problems in the space of a few seconds.

That is what made the afternoon feel special.

Belgium did not simply beat Australia.

It made the game look unmistakably Belgian.

Australia starts chasing almost immediately

Julie Allemand hit a three early and smiled, usually a dangerous sign for whoever is standing across from Belgium.

The Cats had arrived ready to play fast, but speed was only part of the problem Australia faced. The real difficulty was how much happened within each Belgian half-court trip. The ball changed sides, players cut through the defense and one action flowed directly into the next. Belgium could run something, see Australia handle the first part correctly and simply continue until another opening appeared. Even the misses often came from strong process.

Australia’s offense looked more individual by comparison. The Opals searched for Stephanie Talbot on the wing and in the post, tried to establish Zitina Aokuso on the block and used their physical advantages where they could, but many attacks became static and dependent on somebody winning a matchup. Belgium rarely made those wins comfortable.

The Cats were connected defensively from the opening quarter, forcing Australia to work in the half court while also attacking the offensive glass themselves. Belgium grabbed two offensive rebounds almost immediately and had six by halftime, an important detail against an Australian team built to punish opponents physically.

Australia did find opportunities when Belgian turnovers allowed it to run, but once the game settled, the contrast became increasingly clear. Belgium was creating advantages collectively, while Australia was being asked to solve more of its offense individually.

The Cats closed the first quarter on an 8-4 run to lead 23-17, having made eight of their 12 two-point attempts while Australia was just 6-of-15.

And Allemand was only getting started.

Julie Allemand makes history exactly as Julie Allemand should

There are records that tell you how long somebody has played.

This one tells you who Julie Allemand is.

Her pick-and-roll passing was on full display in the second quarter. She waited for defenders to commit, changed the timing of actions, found rollers the instant the window appeared and kept manipulating Australia until the defense finally gave something away.

Allemand entered this World Cup with 87 career assists, then handed out 17 more over Belgium’s first two games. That left her at 104 entering the matchup with Australia, five short of the record. Before the first half was over, she had reached the top of the Women’s World Cup assist list.

Think about the names she passed: Laia Palau, Sue Bird, Dawn Staley. Three of the great guards international basketball has known. Allemand has reached this point in only her third World Cup, with this tournament itself still in the group stage, while Bird and Palau each played five.

But the number alone is not what made the moment beautiful.

Watch Belgium play and the record makes perfect sense.

Allemand does not pass simply because she prefers to create for others. She passes because she sees where the advantage is going to appear. She understands what the defense has already conceded, sometimes before the defense fully recognizes it itself.

Against Australia, that intelligence was everywhere.

Belgium’s defense helped fuel a 7-0 run and a 10-point lead, with all five players moving together and the rotations arriving sharply enough to hold Australia scoreless through several stretches. Ezi Magbegor eventually broke one drought inside, and Australia answered with a 6-0 run to climb back within six.

Belgium needed a response, and Meesseman supplied it without needing the ball for long. A sharp off-ball defensive play became a steal, then smart movement at the other end drew contact and sent her to the line for two free throws.

That is Meesseman in miniature: changing a game without needing every possession to run through her.

Australia had begun doing a better job staying with Belgium deeper into the shot clock, but Billie Massey’s three at the halftime buzzer restored a seven-point advantage.

Belgium 40, Australia 33.

And somewhere inside those first 20 minutes, Julie Allemand had become No. 1.

Julie and Emma start playing basketball in their own language

Australia came out of halftime with adjustments.

Belgium kept finding answers.

One of the Cats’ most effective actions was an empty-side pick-and-roll with Meesseman operating as the short roller. It put Australia in a brutal sequence of decisions: contain Allemand, account for Emma receiving the ball in the middle of the floor, then recover quickly enough to deal with whatever came next.

Because Meesseman catching in space is rarely the end of the action.

More often, it is where the defense’s real problem begins.

She can score. She can find the cutter. She can fire the ball to the perimeter. She can hold it for half a beat and let the defense rotate itself out of position.

Australia also tried to involve Magbegor through the pitch handoff that had worked so well against Türkiye, looking to release her toward her right hand, but Belgium was ready for it. The Cats opened the third quarter 7-3 and pushed the advantage to 11 before Australia answered after a timeout with six straight points.

Julie Vanloo responded immediately with a three out of Belgium’s timeout, another reminder of why this offense can be so difficult to contain. Take away one solution and another appears. Commit more attention to Meesseman and Allemand sees the next read. Collapse on their two-woman game and Vanloo is waiting beyond it.

And when Julie and Emma began working directly together, there were stretches when basketball looked almost impossibly simple. A screen created a read, the read became a pass, the pass led to movement, and the next opening appeared before Australia had fully recovered from the first one.

Two players understanding not only where the other is, but where she is going to be.

Australia did find more success getting its guards downhill during the quarter, and its rebounding improved significantly after halftime. Belgium did not collect a single offensive rebound in the third, while back-to-back turnovers to close the period gave the Opals enough life to remain close.

After three quarters, it was only 60-55.

Australia was still there.

But it had spent almost the entire game solving problems.

Belgium was about to give it several more.

The Cats find another gear

Allemand opened the fourth-quarter separation with the kind of shot that changes the feeling inside an arena: an off-the-bounce three that pushed Belgium back ahead by 10.

The Cats opened the quarter 5-0 and eventually stretched the run to 11-2 as Australia’s execution began to unravel. Four turnovers came during that stretch, each one another sign that Belgium had tightened the game at exactly the right moment. Australia had committed only four turnovers through the first three quarters. It committed seven in the fourth.

That was where the game finally broke.

The Opals responded to a timeout with four quick points, but Antonia Delaere buried a corner three before the momentum could grow. Vanloo followed with four straight points, and Belgium had pushed the margin to 15 with 2:21 remaining.

Australia still tried to summon one last push. Chloe Bibby hit a three and Magbegor finished a layup, leaving just enough time to imagine one final run if Belgium opened the door.

Emma closed it.

Her mid-range jumper with 40 seconds remaining was soft, certain and final, a fitting dagger from a player who had spent the entire game doing almost everything else first.

She scored when Belgium needed scoring, rebounded against one of the tournament’s strongest frontcourts, created for teammates, defended away from the ball and became the decision-maker in the short roll whenever Australia committed two defenders to the initial action.

Twenty-two points. Ten rebounds. Eight assists.

A near triple-double in a game for first place against Australia, and somehow even that line does not fully capture how much of the game she touched.

This is what Belgium can be

Belgium finished with 28 assists to Australia’s 18, and that number is not decoration.

It is the clearest expression of what separated the teams.

The Cats made Australia defend decisions rather than players. They linked actions together, kept cutting after the first advantage disappeared and trusted that one more pass would eventually reveal the opening. At the other end, they were just as collective, allowing only six offensive rebounds against an Australian team capable of overwhelming opponents with size and physicality.

Meesseman was magnificent with 22 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. Kyara Linskens added a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Vanloo contributed 12 points and five assists.

And Allemand?

Eleven points. Seven assists. Another afternoon spent deciding where the basketball needed to go, except this one will live forever in the record book.

She reached the World Cup assist record doing what she has always done: seeing beyond herself.

There is something perfect about that. Basketball celebrates scoring because scoring is loud. The crowd rises when the shot falls, and highlights remember the player who finishes the play. Allemand has built a career seeing everything that has to happen before that moment: the defender leaning half a step too far, the roller arriving behind the help, the teammate waiting in the corner, the pass that turns movement into advantage.

And beside her is Meesseman, another superstar whose greatness has never required the game to stop around her. She screens, passes, cuts, rebounds, steals, scores and thinks her way through possessions while making everyone around her better.

That is why watching Belgium at its best can feel different.

It is not simply beautiful because the ball moves.

It is beautiful because the players understand why it should move.

Australia came to Berlin playing for first place in the group.

Belgium made them chase shadows.

The Cats are group winners. Julie Allemand is the Women’s World Cup’s all-time assist leader. Emma Meesseman came within two assists of a triple-double.

And when these two see the game like this, and the rest of Belgium sees it with them, basketball can become something truly special.

Türkiye kept winning extra chances. Puerto Rico kept creating the better shots.

That contrast defined a wonderful back-and-forth game. Türkiye collected 20 offensive rebounds and repeatedly survived poor shooting by winning the ball back around the rim. Puerto Rico answered by attacking inside, where it shot 63 percent on twos and found its most reliable offense.

Then the fourth quarter changed everything.

Pamela Rosado hit the threes that erased Türkiye’s lead, Trinity San Antonio took over the game’s energy, and Arella Guirantes supplied the composure at the finish. Puerto Rico came from seven down after three quarters and won 75-71 in a game with 10 lead changes and six ties.

Türkiye is eliminated.

Puerto Rico gets to keep playing for a place in the quarterfinals.

Türkiye keeps finding another chance

Puerto Rico looked sharper first.

It opened with more activity, attacked Türkiye before the defense could settle and built a 14-10 advantage through the opening five minutes. An early attempt to show zone lasted only briefly after Türkiye immediately punished it from the perimeter, sending Puerto Rico back to man-to-man.

Then Sevgi Uzun began taking over the Turkish offense.

Türkiye’s defense started making Puerto Rico’s creation more difficult, and Uzun supplied the points required to turn that resistance into something tangible. She hit a three to give Türkiye a 15-14 lead, added two free throws moments later and had scored 10 of her team’s first 17 points.

Puerto Rico responded to move back ahead, but Türkiye had already found the other element that would sustain it throughout the afternoon: the offensive glass.

Even while shooting only 32 percent in the first quarter compared with Puerto Rico’s 47 percent, Türkiye collected five offensive rebounds. That work kept it attached to a game Puerto Rico had largely played better.

Then came a final swing with one second remaining.

Derin Erdoğan drew a three-shot foul and converted all three free throws.

Türkiye led 20-19 after one.

Puerto Rico’s best offense is waiting inside

Puerto Rico did not need to search very far for its advantage.

When it attacked the paint, Türkiye struggled to contain it.

The problem was that Puerto Rico did not always stay there.

At halftime, the contrast was almost absurd: Puerto Rico had made 14 of 21 two-point attempts and just 2 of 13 threes. When the ball went downhill, the offense produced. When it drifted toward the perimeter, Türkiye was being given a reprieve.

Trinity San Antonio understood where the opportunities were. She reached halftime with 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting, consistently bringing force to the spaces Türkiye was having difficulty protecting.

Still, Türkiye led 40-37 because the offensive glass kept bailing out poor shooting.

Ten offensive rebounds had already produced a 13-2 advantage in second-chance points. Elif Bayram became increasingly important in that battle, finding the ball around the rim, extending trips and making Puerto Rico defend for longer than it wanted.

Uzun remained the organizer around all of it. Türkiye’s offense became noticeably more difficult when she went to the bench in the second quarter, with Puerto Rico moving ahead 29-28. Once she returned, Türkiye immediately looked more comfortable, turning that deficit into a 35-29 lead.

Puerto Rico fought back by forcing turnovers and running, tying the game at 37.

Uzun answered one more time.

Her third three of the half dropped with 16 seconds remaining, sending Türkiye into halftime ahead 40-37 with 13 points.

Bayram owns the glass, but Puerto Rico stays close enough

Türkiye came out of halftime with its best sustained stretch of offense.

Tilbe Şenyürek Arslan and Uzun hit early threes. Olcay Çakır added another. For the first time, the work Türkiye had been doing on the glass was being paired with enough perimeter shot-making to create real separation.

Bayram remained at the center of everything physical.

By the end of the third quarter, Türkiye had an astonishing 18 offensive rebounds. Bayram accounted for seven of them herself and had already assembled 13 points and 12 rebounds, repeatedly winning loose balls and finishing around the basket.

Türkiye led 58-51 after three.

Yet even then, Puerto Rico’s path remained obvious. Thirty of its points had already come in the paint, while its perimeter shooting sat at just 2-of-15. Guirantes could create, McGee-Stafford gave them a target inside and San Antonio kept bringing the kind of force the game demanded.

Seven points still did not feel safe.

San Antonio changes the fourth quarter

Rosado changed the game first.

Back-to-back threes erased Türkiye’s lead and put Puerto Rico ahead 59-58 with 8:23 remaining. Almost immediately, Bayram went down injured, a brutal interruption to a performance built on relentless work around the rim.

Then San Antonio took over the energy of the game.

Her impact was bigger than the box score. She pressured the ball, disrupted Türkiye’s execution and kept attacking, giving Puerto Rico exactly the lift it needed while Türkiye struggled to reset. When she scored again with 3:28 remaining, Puerto Rico led 67-60.

The final minutes tightened quickly.

Türkiye tried to rescue a broken trip with its final timeout and just 0.4 seconds left on the shot clock, but the restart ended in an offensive foul on Uzun for moving on the back screen. Puerto Rico punished the mistake immediately, with Guirantes finishing a reverse layup to make it 69-65.

Another Uzun turnover released San Antonio in transition, stretching the margin to 71-65 with 39 seconds left.

Even then, Türkiye found one last answer.

Çakır buried a pull-up three to cut the margin to three. McGee-Stafford answered with two free throws, but Şenyürek Arslan drew a three-shot foul on the next trip and made all three, dragging Türkiye back to 73-71 with five seconds remaining.

After nearly 40 minutes of swings, missed chances and second efforts, everything came down to one inbound.

Puerto Rico found Guirantes.

She drew the foul, made both free throws and restored the four-point lead. Erdoğan’s final pull-up three missed with one second left, and Puerto Rico finally had the 75-71 win.

Puerto Rico earns another game

Türkiye finished with 20 offensive rebounds. Puerto Rico finished shooting 51 percent from the field and 63 percent on twos.

That was the game in miniature.

Türkiye created more chances. Puerto Rico made more of the ones it had.

Guirantes finished with 21 points and supplied the composure Puerto Rico needed at the end. San Antonio scored 18 on 9-of-13 shooting, her fourth-quarter energy becoming one of the defining forces of the comeback. McGee-Stafford added 16 points and 14 rebounds.

Uzun finished with 18 points and eight assists after carrying Türkiye through enormous stretches of the game. Bayram had 13 points and 12 rebounds, including seven offensive boards, before her afternoon ended painfully early.

Puerto Rico moves on with a chance to reach the quarterfinals.

Türkiye’s World Cup is over.

Hungary knew where its advantage was.

Korea spent almost the entire afternoon trying to stop them from reaching it.

The size was obvious. So was the damage Hungary could do around the basket. Early in the game, Dorka Juhász and the Hungarian frontcourt were getting exactly where they wanted, while Korea struggled to handle the physical disparity and found itself staring at a 17-9 deficit.

Then Korea changed the game.

Its guards pushed higher, the pressure became more aggressive, Hungary’s entries became harder to make and the high-low game became more difficult to access. By the second half, a game Hungary had looked completely comfortable controlling had become a fight for every possession.

Korea erased the gap, took the lead and stayed within one shot deep into the fourth quarter. Hungary still found a way, leaning on Juhász, the offensive glass and one huge late three to finally create separation.

The reward is second place in the group.

Hungary starts by playing exactly the game it wants

This may have been the most composed Hungary had looked all tournament.

Against a Korean team constantly searching for speed, Hungary refused to be dragged into an open game. It got back defensively, kept Korea out of transition and patiently searched for the size advantages waiting at the other end.

Those advantages were not difficult to find.

Hungary went inside early and often, while defensively switching 1-through-5 with impressive discipline. Korea’s movement normally forces defenders through multiple decisions, but the switches prevented the first action from immediately creating separation. Without transition opportunities to accelerate the game, Korea was being asked to manufacture offense against a bigger defense already in position.

Hungary led 13-6, then 17-9.

Isaem Choi provided Korea’s first meaningful response, scoring five straight points late in the opening quarter and helping reduce the deficit to 19-16. Hungary still carried a 20-16 lead into the second, but Korea had found enough offense to stay connected.

Then its pressure began changing the matchup.

Hungary continued getting production around the basket, with Juhász scoring inside and reaching the line, but Korea started extending its defense farther from the paint. The Hungarian guards suddenly had less time to initiate, passing angles became more difficult and getting the ball to the frontcourt stopped being automatic.

Hungary still had the size advantage.

Korea was beginning to deny access to it.

A brief injury concern added another complication. Juhász came down awkwardly on her left hand and went to the bench to have it checked, while Virág Takács-Kiss also appeared to be dealing with a hand issue. Juhász soon returned, but Korea had already begun changing the terms of the game.

By the final two minutes of the half, Hungary had seven turnovers and Korea’s pressure was making every initiation more uncomfortable. The lead fell to 38-36 before Hungary steadied itself, with Takács-Kiss producing a steal and Réka Lelik converting two free throws.

Hungary led 40-36 at halftime.

The size advantage was still there. The question had become whether Hungary could consistently reach it.

Korea turns pressure into belief

The answer became increasingly complicated in the third quarter.

Hungary briefly pushed the lead to 45-39, then committed four turnovers in less than two minutes. Korea was no longer merely making the offense uncomfortable. It was turning disruption directly into points.

Heji An stole the ball and Haeran Lee finished in transition. Later, Sohee Lee turned two more Hungarian mistakes into five points, first hitting a three and then stealing the ball and scoring in the open floor.

What had been a composed half-court matchup was now being played on Korea’s terms more frequently. Hungary could not get comfortably into its actions, and each mistake created another opportunity for Korea to speed everything up.

Yeeun Heo tied the game at 51 with a three. Turner briefly put Hungary back ahead after an offensive rebound, only for Sohee Lee to answer immediately from deep and give Korea a 54-53 lead.

Hungary recovered before the end of the quarter, carrying a 58-56 advantage into the fourth despite 15 turnovers and 10 Korean steals.

What kept Hungary upright was the glass.

The rebounding margin stood at 31-19 after three quarters, and Juhász had 17 points and nine rebounds. Even while Korea was disrupting the route to Hungary’s preferred offense, the Hungarians were still imposing size in other ways.

That would matter enormously late.

The glass gives Hungary its way out

Jihyun Park tied the game at 62 early in the fourth, and from there neither side could create meaningful separation. Korea continued pressuring Hungary’s guards while Hungary searched for ways to get its size back into the game.

Eventually, the offensive glass provided them.

With Hungary protecting a narrow lead, Ágnes Studer missed two free throws, but Kinga Józsa-Povits collected the miss and scored to make it 68-64. It was her second important offensive rebound in a short span, both producing baskets at a moment when clean half-court offense had become difficult to find.

Korea kept answering. Park scored to cut the margin to two, and after Hungary rebuilt it to five from the line, Choi buried a three to make it 72-70 with just over a minute remaining.

Then the game finally gave Hungary a chance to breathe.

A defensive stop was followed by a Korean five-second inbound violation. With 55 seconds left, Juhász stepped beyond the arc and buried the shot of the afternoon.

77-70.

Heo answered with another three, but Hungary handled the final seconds from the line and on the glass. Appropriately, the last decisive play came when Takács-Kiss grabbed a missed Turner free throw and finished the putback that stretched the margin beyond Korea’s reach.

Hungary survives by reaching its advantage often enough

Hungary finished with 21 turnovers.

Korea generated 10 steals and scored 22 points off those mistakes.

But the other side of the box score explains why Hungary survived.

43-21 on the glass.

Twelve offensive rebounds.

A 17-8 advantage in second-chance points.

Juhász finished with an excellent 22 points and 11 rebounds, including four offensive boards, and made both of her three-point attempts. Takács-Kiss added 14 points, eight rebounds and four assists, while Turner scored 12.

For Korea, Park finished with 21 points, while 42 percent shooting from three kept the game close deep into the fourth.

Hungary takes second place in the group. Korea takes third. Both move into the crossover round with a quarterfinal place still available.

And when Hungary finally needed one shot to breathe, Dorka Juhász stepped outside and made it.

France had already secured first place, while Nigeria was playing only for its first win of the World Cup. The difference in stakes did nothing to soften the mismatch.

Nigeria brought energy and physicality, but France’s length erased space around the basket, its pressure turned mistakes into points, and its shooting quickly made the game impossible to contain. By halftime, France led 65-26.

There was never much doubt about the result. The interest came from seeing just how complete France could make the performance.

Nigeria brings the fight, France removes the space

Nigeria opened with tremendous activity on both ends.

The physicality was immediate, and France did not simply walk into clean offense. Nigeria challenged catches, fought through actions and tried to make every trip demanding.

The problem was what happened at the other end.

France’s length began shrinking Nigeria’s options almost immediately. Drives that might normally reach the rim ran into bodies and arms. Possessions stretched deeper into the shot clock. Even when Nigeria succeeded in creating an opening, finishing through the size waiting inside became another problem entirely.

Nigeria went just 1-of-8 on two-point attempts in the first quarter, a brutal illustration of how little was available near the basket.

France, meanwhile, kept finding solutions.

Marine Johannès supplied the early shot-making, knocking down a three to push the lead to 16-7 before continuing an excellent opening quarter. France moved the ball well, punished the attention Nigeria had to commit elsewhere and finished the period with eight assists and seven made threes.

Johannès already had 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting.

France led 31-13.

There was one uncomfortable moment late in the quarter when Dominique Malonga went down after taking contact around the leg or knee area. She left briefly, creating understandable concern, but returned during the second quarter and was able to continue.

That was about the only moment all afternoon when France looked genuinely unsettled.

The game breaks open from everywhere at once

By the middle of the second quarter, the question was no longer whether France would win.

It was how far the performance might go.

The defensive pressure intensified. Nigeria’s possessions continued to become more difficult, and mistakes increasingly became French offense before Nigeria could even organize defensively. By halftime, France had forced 15 turnovers and scored 22 points off them.

Then there was the shooting.

France reached 11 made threes through roughly 15 minutes. By halftime, it was 14-of-25 from deep.

The shooting was spectacular, but it was not disconnected from everything else France was doing. The ball was moving, the defense was creating transition chances and Nigeria was constantly being forced to cover multiple threats. France had 17 assists by halftime, and the open shots were often the result of the advantage created one action earlier.

Gabby Williams was at the center of the destruction with 19 first-half points. Johannès had 14 on 5-of-7 shooting, including four threes.

Nigeria kept competing.

France kept expanding the problem.

65-26 at halftime.

The game was over as a contest.

France still had basketball to play.

The record arrives

By the end of the third quarter, France led 95-39 and had moved within one three of the mark Japan had set only three days earlier.

There was no need to force it. The same offense that had carried France there kept producing good looks, and with 5:45 remaining, Migna Touré rose and knocked down another three.

Twenty-one.

That was the record.

France kept playing and eventually finished with 22 made threes on 40 attempts, with Malonga adding one of the final makes after returning from her first-quarter scare.

More than a shooting exhibition

The shooting will own the headline, but the performance was broader than that.

Nigeria finished at just 28 percent from the field and committed 23 turnovers. France collected 14 steals, scored 35 points off those mistakes and finished with 29 assists, combining defensive pressure with relentless ball movement at the other end.

France also used portions of the fourth quarter to work in a zone defense. How much that means for the knockout rounds is impossible to know. It may simply have been a useful coverage in a game long decided, or it may be another changeup France wants available later.

Williams finished with 25 points on 8-of-12 shooting and six made threes. Janelle Salaün added 19, Johannès scored 17 and Touré finished with 16. France also received 54 points from its bench, while Malonga returned after the first-quarter scare and was able to finish the game.

The final was 111-56.

France spent the afternoon showing just how much more it still had to offer.

For three quarters, Japan kept making Spain earn everything.

It brought the physicality, the pressure and the speed that have defined so much of its World Cup. It forced mistakes, made bodies hit the floor and repeatedly found ways to pull itself back into a game Spain seemed ready to control. Even after falling behind by 11 in the first half, Japan closed to within three at halftime. Even after Spain opened the third quarter with another surge, Japan found another answer.

What Japan could never quite do was turn all of that disruption into enough offense.

Spain could.

The difference became clearer as the game wore on. Spain dominated the offensive glass, punished turnovers, found cutters when Japan overcommitted and, when the traps became most aggressive in the fourth quarter, consistently identified the player Japan had left behind. A competitive game finally broke open because Spain could survive pressure without losing sight of the advantage it had created.

The 79-59 win sends Spain to the top of Group A. Japan finishes second and will face Hungary for the right to meet USA in the quarterfinals.

Spain creates more chances than Japan can afford to give away

Spain announced one of its intentions immediately, repeatedly going to a stagger cross-screen action in the opening minutes and using it for different players. Japan responded with the expected aggression, making catches difficult and trying to speed the game whenever possible, while Spain hunted mismatches and leaned toward its size.

The early problem for Japan was not its defense. Spain had to work. Japan simply could not produce enough at the other end.

France had already shown how difficult it can be to create clean interior offense against length and size, and Spain presented Japan with a different version of the same problem. The first quarter became increasingly difficult as turnovers accumulated, while Spain began finding just enough shot-making to separate. Iyana Martín hit two threes, Spain started targeting Rui Machida defensively after she entered, and an 8-0 run opened the first meaningful gap.

Japan briefly cut the margin to 18-15 through Saki Hayashi, but Spain closed the quarter with five straight points, including Megan Gustafson’s and-one, to lead 23-15.

The game became more physical in the second quarter, and Spain started finding another source of control: the offensive glass.

Awa Fam was particularly active there, while Spain used double-big lineups with Fam and Gustafson together. Japan could force the initial miss and still find itself defending again. By halftime, Spain had 12 offensive rebounds to Japan’s five and had produced 15 second-chance points.

That was essential because Spain was not actually shooting well.

Japan reached halftime shooting 40 percent from the field compared with Spain’s 31 percent and had a significant efficiency advantage on twos. Spain’s lead was being built elsewhere: on the glass, through defensive activity and by creating far more opportunities to score.

Japan, however, refused to let the first half end quietly.

Spain had stretched the margin to 37-26 and looked ready to create serious separation when Kokoro Tanaka changed the final 90 seconds. She scored seven points during the closing stretch, including a step-back three, as Japan finished the half on a 10-2 run.

Suddenly, it was 39-36.

For all the damage Spain had done through offensive rebounds and turnovers, Japan was one shot away.

Awa Fam gives Spain another way to attack

The third quarter belonged to Fam.

Her impact went well beyond scoring. When Japan shifted extra attention toward her in the post, Fam began finding cutters moving behind the defense, turning Spain’s size advantage into a playmaking hub rather than simply a place to throw the ball and wait for a shot.

That distinction mattered against Japan’s aggression.

Japan wants pressure to make an opponent rush. Spain increasingly used that aggression against it.

Cuts came when defenders gambled. Players moved into the space vacated by overhelp. The ball left Fam’s hands before Japan could complete its rotations. Spain was not merely resisting the pressure anymore; it was beginning to manipulate it.

The result was an 11-3 start to the half and a 50-39 lead.

Fam was everywhere during the stretch, scoring, defending, rebounding and creating from the post. By the end of the third quarter, she had 12 points and nine rebounds, five of them offensive, and had become the most important player in Spain’s effort to keep the game under control.

Japan’s path back remained speed.

Whenever it could make the game move before Spain was set, the offense looked more dangerous. Tanaka and Norika Konno hit important threes, and Japan repeatedly cut into margins that could easily have become decisive.

But every comeback demanded enormous energy.

Spain still led 57-48 after three quarters, still held the advantage on the glass and still had more ways to generate offense when the first action failed.

Japan had stayed alive.

The question was how much longer it could keep doing it.

Spain finally turns pressure into punishment

Japan made one more push at the start of the fourth quarter.

Tanaka cut the deficit to 57-50, and the familiar ingredients were still there: physicality, pressure and the sense that another Spanish mistake could pull Japan right back into the game.

Spain answered immediately.

María Conde hit a three. Martín continued attacking. The lead moved back into double figures, and from there the nature of Japan’s pressure began to change.

Earlier in the game, it had disrupted Spain.

Now Spain was reading it.

The traps arrived, but the ball escaped them. Japan committed a second defender, and Spain found the space that defender had abandoned. The more aggressively Japan gambled, the more clearly the next pass appeared.

With 1:54 remaining, Spain led 74-57.

That was the real separation between the teams.

Japan could still force difficult moments. It could still create turnovers and produce good looks around the rim. But it was not converting enough of those chances, while Spain had become increasingly precise whenever Japan tried to speed the game up.

There were bodies on the floor throughout the fourth quarter. Neither team backed away from the contact. Spain simply matched Japan’s intensity without allowing the physicality to dictate its decisions.

The fourth quarter ended 22-11.

The game was finally gone.

Spain earns first place by solving every version of Japan

The final numbers tell the story without needing much decoration.

Spain won the rebounding battle 47-31, including an 18-8 advantage on the offensive glass. It forced 18 turnovers, collected 13 steals and finished with 19 assists to Japan’s nine.

Those were not separate advantages. They connected.

The offensive rebounds protected Spain when its shooting was poor. The steals created easier offense. The ball movement punished Japan whenever its pressure overextended. By the time Spain began shooting and executing more cleanly, Japan was being asked to survive too many different problems at once.

Martín finished with 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting, adding four rebounds, two steals and a block. Fam produced a superb 16 points and 10 rebounds, including six offensive boards, while also giving Spain playmaking and defensive impact from the post.

Tanaka led Japan with 15 points, and Konno added 12, but Japan finished just 7-of-30 from three and never found enough efficiency to match the number of problems it was creating defensively.

Japan made Spain uncomfortable.

Spain never stopped thinking.

And by the fourth quarter, every aggressive rotation, every trap and every gamble Japan threw at them seemed to reveal the next answer.

Spain leaves Group A in first place.

Japan finishes second, with Hungary waiting next.

One game now stands between Japan and a quarterfinal against USA.

Germany did not play a perfect game against Mali, but every time the game threatened to become uncomfortable, it knew how to find itself again.

The offense was crowded early. Alexis Peterson had a couple of loose turnovers. Mali found brief openings against the zone, hit enough threes to stay attached and came out of halftime with five straight points that briefly suggested there might still be a game to chase. Germany never panicked. The ball kept finding the right places, its size controlled the glass and the threes eventually opened the floor.

By the end, 26 assists on 30 made field goals told the story better than almost anything else.

Germany won 83-58, secured second place in the group and moved on to face Korea for the right to play Belgium in the quarterfinals. Mali’s tournament ends here, but not without leaving something behind.

Mali finds the spaces Germany is willing to give

Germany’s defensive idea was clear almost immediately: protect the paint first.

Germany collapsed bodies toward the interior and asked Mali to create through traffic, making the areas where Mali can be most physically imposing difficult to reach cleanly. When Germany shifted into a 2-3 zone, Mali initially found a useful answer by attacking closer to the basket, scoring four straight points inside to cut the early margin to 9-6.

Then Mali drifted away from it.

More possessions began ending from three, exactly the kind of trade Germany seemed more willing to accept. Rokia Doumbia hit twice from deep and helped keep Mali attached, but the offense never found enough sustained efficiency to punish Germany for conceding those shots.

Germany was hardly smooth itself. The spacing looked congested in the opening quarter, Peterson committed a couple of clumsy turnovers and there were stretches when Germany had nine assists without the offense actually feeling particularly free. Nyara Sabally and Frieda Bühner gave them useful interior production, while Leonie Fiebich kept contributing across the game without needing to dominate the scoring.

That was enough for a 23-18 lead after one. Mali had made Germany work, but Germany had not yet started shooting.

Bühner opens the floor

That changed in the second quarter as the threes began falling and the entire geometry of the game shifted.

Peterson started settling Germany down, and the offense that had looked cramped began creating more space between actions. Mali was still hanging around at 34-29, close enough to keep the game competitive.

Instead, Bühner detonated the margin.

She hit three threes over the final five minutes of the half, while Alexandra Wilke and Marie Gülich also connected from deep. A five-point game became 17, and Germany closed the half on a 15-3 run to go into the break ahead 49-32.

The improvement was not simply about hot shooting. The important part was what the makes unlocked. The floor stretched, passing lanes widened and the ball began arriving earlier and cleaner. By halftime, Germany had 16 assists and was 7-of-15 from three.

Bühner had 13 points, while Luisa Geiselsöder was perfect from the field at 4-of-4 for 10. Mali had stayed alive through perimeter makes of its own, but it was shooting only 30 percent overall and had gone 4-of-17 from deep. Once Germany began converting consistently, Mali no longer had enough offense to keep the margin where it had been.

Germany refuses to let the gap close

Mali came out of halftime exactly as it needed to, scoring five straight points to cut the margin to 49-37.

Germany responded almost immediately.

Peterson got the offense moving again, Geiselsöder scored five straight herself, including a three, and the lead was suddenly 56-37. Mali later cut it to 56-42, only for Germany to score the next eight.

That became the defining pattern of the second half. Mali could reduce the margin, but Germany never allowed those stretches to alter the direction of the game.

There was a maturity to that response. Germany did not need a spectacular individual bailout or a frantic timeout to settle itself. It simply returned to what had been working: better spacing, quicker decisions and the willingness to trust the next pass.

By the end of the third quarter, the lead was 64-44, and the fourth did not become a victory lap. Germany stayed purposeful.

Peterson found Geiselsöder inside, then came up with a steal and hit Bühner in transition for another three that pushed the margin beyond 20. It was a fitting sequence because it captured so much of what Germany had done well: defensive activity, balance and the instinct to keep the ball moving rather than force the first option.

Germany moves on, Mali leaves with something real

Germany finished with 26 assists on 30 made field goals, the clearest expression of why the game steadily moved away from Mali.

It also won the rebounding battle 50-35, shot 45 percent from the field and made 14 of its 16 free throws. Bühner finished with 21 points and went 4-of-6 from three, Geiselsöder added 17 on 7-of-11 shooting, Fiebich contributed seven points, nine rebounds and six assists, and Peterson finished with nine points, five assists and two steals.

Mali shot 33 percent overall and 6-of-28 from three. The fight never disappeared, but the efficiency required to threaten Germany never arrived.

Germany advances in second place and will meet Korea, with Belgium waiting for the winner in the quarterfinals.

For Mali, this is the end of the road, but this World Cup should not be reduced to the final score of its last game. Mali beat Spain, played with physicality, courage and real competitive quality across the group stage, and kept fighting even as Germany steadily pulled away.

The tournament moves on without them, but Mali leaves it with its head high.

USA shot just 7-of-25 from three and still scored 105 points. The Americans dominated inside, controlled the glass and moved the ball with precision, steadily turning those advantages into a 41-point win over a Czechia team that competed confidently despite already being eliminated.

Stewart sets the standard early

Czechia did not begin like a team simply waiting for its World Cup to end. It attacked with confidence, absorbed USA’s early physicality and stayed within 16-10 midway through the opening quarter. The problem was that Breanna Stewart was already influencing almost everything. She scored around the basket, created for teammates and protected the rim, producing 11 first-quarter points while helping establish the standard at both ends.

The defensive activity around her made Czechia’s task increasingly difficult. Napheesa Collier and Rhyne Howard generated steals, Stewart and Paige Bueckers recorded blocks, and USA gradually began turning defensive disruption into cleaner offense. Caitlin Clark helped create for others, while Stewart repeatedly found opportunities near the basket as the Americans pulled away late in the quarter. Czechia had not looked intimidated, but USA’s combination of shot-making and defensive activity stretched the lead to 29-15 after one.

USA finds its advantage inside

Czechia briefly cut the margin to 30-19 early in the second quarter, but USA rebuilt it through interior efficiency and ball movement. Collier scored seven points during one stretch before Jackie Young added five straight as the lead reached 44-24. Bueckers provided late scoring, Angel Reese created extra opportunities around the basket and Stewart continued to move comfortably between scorer and facilitator.

By halftime, USA led 57-33 despite making only five of its 16 three-point attempts. The Americans were shooting 62 percent on twos and had already scored 28 points in the paint. Czechia was actually finishing well inside itself at 10-of-17 on two-point attempts, but the perimeter shooting was a major problem at 1-of-14 from three.

USA’s decision-making created an even sharper contrast. The Americans had 19 assists against only two turnovers, consistently reaching quality shots without giving Czechia the kind of mistakes that might have opened transition opportunities at the other end. Stewart reached halftime with 13 points, six rebounds and six assists, Collier had 12 points and five rebounds, Young had 10, and both Bueckers and Clark had four assists.

Defensive pressure widens the gap

Czechia opened the third quarter with another competitive stretch, finding offense through Eliška Joklová, Julie Pospíšilová and Gabriela Andělová. USA never allowed it to seriously reduce the margin. Howard generated multiple steals, Bueckers added another block and Czechia began losing possessions under the increasing defensive pressure.

Young and Kiki Iriafen contributed through the middle of the quarter before Clark, Bueckers, Aliyah Boston and Sonia Citron helped close it. USA won the period 25-14 and entered the fourth ahead 82-47.

With the result settled, Citron was particularly active in transition and around the basket, while Iriafen and Reese continued creating extra opportunities inside. Bueckers added another jumper and Clark knocked down a pull-up three late in the quarter. Czechia still competed and put together a small run that reduced the margin from 94-51 to 94-57, but the game had long since moved beyond reach.

A 105-point performance built from the inside out

USA shot 35-of-55 on twos, won the rebounding battle 55-35 and turned 19 offensive rebounds into a 22-4 advantage in second-chance points. The ball movement remained just as impressive, with 31 assists on 42 made field goals.

Stewart was outstanding in only 16:47, finishing with 19 points, seven rebounds and six assists on 8-of-11 shooting. Joklová led Czechia with 19 points, but a 3-of-30 night from three left too much ground to recover.

USA had first place secured before tip-off and did not need anything extraordinary to close the group stage. It simply imposed its advantages inside, on the glass and through the quality of its passing until the difference between the teams became impossible to hide.

China imposed the game from the inside out.

Han Xu’s mobility, Zhang Ziyu’s presence and China’s zone crowded Italy’s offense from the start, while the attention they demanded also opened driving lanes for the guards. Italy produced one strong third-quarter response by increasing its defensive pressure, but it never found enough scoring to seriously threaten the result.

The 71-51 win sends China through in second place and into a quarterfinal qualifier against Puerto Rico. Italy finishes third and now faces Australia.

China takes away Italy’s clean looks

China opened 5-0, Cecilia Zandalasini answered with a three, and then the game quickly began tilting toward China.

Han was causing problems with her mobility, while Italy was largely trying to handle her one-on-one. Zhang added another difficult cover, and China kept finding productive scoring areas. By the time Italy called timeout trailing 14-5 with 4:54 remaining, the offensive problems were just as concerning.

Almost every Italian look felt forced. China was 10-of-16 from the field while Italy had started 3-of-14, and the contrast in shot quality was even sharper. China held a 14-0 advantage in points in the paint, consistently creating cleaner opportunities while Italy struggled to generate comparable looks.

The problem extended beyond China’s man-to-man possessions. Its zone also worked well and remained effective even when Zhang went to the bench, with enough length still on the floor to alter attempts and make Italy hesitate. Italy did not score its first points of the second quarter until 7:16.

China changes Italy’s help rules

The influence of Han and Zhang extended beyond their own scoring.

Chinese guards were able to attack with surprising ease, particularly Wang Siyu, because the threats behind those drives complicated Italy’s help decisions. Leaving Han or Zhang carried obvious consequences, and that hesitation created cleaner lanes for China’s perimeter players.

Italy never found the same freedom offensively. The zone kept shrinking available space and affecting attempts even when the initial action appeared to work. Matilde Villa and Zandalasini supplied most of Italy’s useful offense, but the team reached halftime just 1-of-10 from three and 8-of-18 on twos.

The rebounding numbers added another layer. China had already collected eight offensive rebounds, while Italy had only seven defensive boards. A small 4-0 Italian run before halftime softened the margin slightly, but China still took a commanding 40-21 lead into the break.

Italy finally changes the game defensively

Italy’s best basketball arrived after halftime.

China continued looking for Han as the roller, but Italy raised its defensive intensity considerably. Catches became more difficult, the ball was pressured earlier and Lorela Cubaj began making an impact on both ends of the floor.

That produced a 10-0 Italian run and, for the first time, made China genuinely uncomfortable. Italy was disrupting the initial actions rather than simply trying to survive them once China had already reached its preferred spots.

Zhang eventually stopped the run, and Yang Shuyu later hit an important midrange jumper to restore a 15-point advantage.

Italy won the quarter 21-15, but China still led 55-42.

China closes the door

Any possibility that the third quarter might develop into something more disappeared quickly in the fourth.

China opened with an excellent set, using a middle elevator action to create a three, and after the teams traded baskets, back-to-back Chinese threes pushed the lead back to 20 with 7:30 remaining. Italy never cut meaningfully into it again, and China closed out the win without needing the final quarter to become especially productive offensively.

Han was the standout, finishing with 19 points and 10 rebounds as her mobility and overall influence shaped the game at both ends. Yang added 15 points and supplied several important baskets whenever Italy threatened to make things more competitive.

For Italy, Villa scored 15 and Zandalasini added 12. Together they accounted for 27 of Italy’s 51 points, more than half of the team’s offense, which captured how difficult it was for Italy to find reliable scoring elsewhere.

China moves on in second place with Puerto Rico next. Italy now faces Australia, with a quarterfinal place on the line.

The group stage is over. From here, the World Cup starts taking teams away.

Four nations are already on their way home. Spain, France, Belgium and USA have secured quarterfinal places. Day 5 now brings two elimination games that may be decided by the same type of matchup, but in very different ways.

In Germany vs Korea, the key battle is whether Germany’s guards can survive Korea’s pressure long enough to bring its size and physicality into the game. In Hungary vs Japan, the question is even more direct: can Hungary consistently get the ball to Dorka Juhász and Virág Takács-Kiss before Japan’s ball pressure disrupts the possession?

That is where both games may turn.

Germany and Hungary both have clear physical advantages. Korea and Japan both have the tools to attack the route toward those advantages rather than the advantages themselves.

Germany and Korea are playing for the right to face Belgium. Hungary and Japan are playing for the right to face USA.

Two games, two quarterfinal places, and two matchups that could be decided before the ball ever reaches the players the bigger teams most want to use.

Germany vs Korea

Korea came close against Hungary but could not finish the job. Now it faces Germany, the second-place team from Group A, with an even smaller margin for error.

For Korea, the formula remains familiar. The ball has to move, bodies have to keep moving with it and the threes need to go up without hesitation. When Korea’s offense reaches that level of speed and connectivity, it can make bigger teams defend continuously and force uncomfortable decisions.

Germany has already seen a similar challenge.

Against Japan, it did an excellent job taking away transition opportunities, using its size and switching to make a fast offense work deeper into possessions. Korea brings many of the same ideas, but with different creators and another level of confidence after pushing Hungary so hard.

The defensive choices will be fascinating. Germany has used zone at this tournament, but deploying it against a team so willing to shoot carries obvious risk. Switching could keep Korea from generating the initial separation it wants, but Germany will also have to deal with constant movement and guards capable of attacking off the bounce.

At the other end, Germany can play fast too, but its version comes with far more physicality. Korea will have to survive the glass, deal with Germany’s frontcourt and still find enough energy to create quality offense.

Korea may need an exceptional shooting night to win this one.

Even that might not be enough.

Hungary vs Japan

Dorka Juhász led Hungary to second place in Group B. The reward is a meeting with Japan, one of the most distinctive teams in the tournament.

These teams already know each other.

They met during the March qualifiers, when Juhász was dominant and helped carry Hungary to the win. The question now is whether Japan can make it much harder for Hungary to consistently reach her.

Hungary just faced a Korean team with some stylistic similarities to Japan and responded by switching across actions. Japan presents an even more difficult creation problem off the bounce, with greater ability to attack those switches and keep the defense moving after the first action.

For Hungary, the frontcourt remains the clearest advantage. Juhász and Virág Takács-Kiss can punish Japan inside and on the glass, but that advantage only matters if Hungary’s guards can deliver the ball cleanly.

That is where Japan will try to change the game.

Its pressure can make every entry difficult, harass ball-handlers well beyond the three-point line and turn comfortable possessions into rushed ones. Hungary dealt with exactly that problem against Korea, committing 21 turnovers even while dominating the glass.

Japan will try to push that weakness much further.

Hungary has the best individual player in the matchup.

Japan may have the more difficult system to prepare for.

One of them will be playing USA next. The other will be going home.

Australia never needed one decisive run against Türkiye because it spent almost the entire afternoon controlling the terms of the game.

Even without Alanna Smith, the Opals repeatedly turned their physical advantages into something tangible. They posted bigger wings, found duck-ins, attacked through Ezi Magbegor, crashed the offensive glass and ran whenever Türkiye gave them the opportunity. By the final buzzer, Australia had scored 56 points in the paint and produced 23 assists, two numbers that captured how consistently it was able to reach the areas it wanted.

Türkiye had answers in stretches. Sevgi Uzun was excellent in the pick-and-roll, the zone caused genuine problems when it appeared, and five third-quarter threes kept the game from breaking open earlier. But Australia was never forced away from its identity for long, and that consistency became the difference in an 87-71 win.

Türkiye finds an early answer

Australia announced its intentions immediately with an 8-0 opening run, attacking close to the basket and getting into transition before Türkiye could organize.

Türkiye responded through Uzun and a defensive adjustment. Uzun quickly became the most reliable source of offense, manipulating Australia’s pick-and-roll coverage, while a 1-2-2 press flowing into a 2-3 zone briefly disrupted the Opals and helped fuel an 8-2 response.

By the 3:02 mark, Türkiye had taken a 15-14 lead.

Australia answered by leaning harder into its work around the rim and on the offensive glass. Rather than allowing the zone to completely dictate the shot profile, the Opals kept finding ways to get bodies inside and create another possession when the first attempt failed.

By the end of the quarter, Australia led 21-15.

Australia keeps finding the mismatch

The second quarter showed how many different ways Australia could turn its advantages into offense.

It was not limited to the centers. The Opals began posting their bigger wings, using duck-ins and identifying smaller defenders whenever Türkiye gave away a mismatch. The guards were also finding straight-line drives too easily, while Magbegor became particularly dangerous when Australia used dribble handoffs to get her attacking downhill rather than asking her to create from a static position.

That variation mattered because Australia was not simply throwing the ball inside and hoping physicality would solve everything. It was creating the conditions for its bigger players to catch on the move or establish position before Türkiye could set its defense.

At the other end, Türkiye’s offense became increasingly predictable. The movement disappeared for stretches, possessions slowed down and too much responsibility fell onto individual creation. Kennedy Burke never found her rhythm, while the team’s 2-of-13 first-half shooting from three made it even harder to relieve the pressure on Uzun.

Australia led 40-30 at halftime, and the margin felt representative of the game: Türkiye had produced a few successful tactical stretches, but Australia had been the team consistently determining where possessions ended.

Türkiye finds its range, Australia stays composed

The third quarter finally gave Türkiye the perimeter shooting it had been missing.

Five threes helped produce 25 points in the period and gave the offense a very different look from the first half.

Australia still scored 27.

The Opals continued feeding favorable matchups, found success through the pick-and-roll themselves and punished a Turkish defense that struggled to contain the initial action. Rather than allowing Türkiye’s shot-making to pull them into a different kind of contest, Australia kept generating the same quality of possessions.

That was one of the most impressive aspects of the performance. Türkiye’s offense improved dramatically, but the Opals did not start chasing the game or change their shot profile simply because shots were falling at the other end.

They led 67-55 after three.

Türkiye had produced its best offensive quarter and still lost the period.

Australia closes it out

By the fourth quarter, Türkiye needed disruption, but its own mistakes began feeding Australia instead.

Defensive breakdowns and turnovers created transition opportunities, and the Opals were ruthless once the floor opened. Australia’s defense also did a better job pushing Türkiye deeper into the shot clock, forcing more late decisions and making Uzun work harder to manufacture offense.

Türkiye returned to the zone with 4:55 remaining and again caused some problems, which only reinforced how useful the coverage had been earlier. It was one of the few defensive looks that consistently altered Australia’s rhythm, but by then the margin was too large for it to matter.

Australia finished with a 56-26 advantage in paint points and 23 assists to Türkiye’s 12. The edge was not simply physical; the Opals consistently turned it into connected offense.

Magbegor led Australia with 21 points, while Steph Talbot delivered another excellent all-around performance with 17 points, five rebounds and five assists on 8-of-10 shooting.

Uzun was outstanding in defeat, leading all scorers with 24 points and adding six assists. Burke finished with 10 points on 4-of-11 shooting and never became the complementary threat Türkiye needed.

Australia had entered with questions after Puerto Rico’s zone exposed some weaknesses in the opener. Türkiye showed flashes of the same solution, but this performance looked much more secure.

Even without Smith, the Opals knew where their advantages were and kept returning to them until the game was theirs.

Czechia spent most of the afternoon taking away the basketball China wanted to play.

They crowded the paint, denied entry passes, sent multiple defenders toward China’s bigs and turned loose decisions into transition opportunities. China committed 29 turnovers. Czechia committed 10. For long stretches, that difference allowed Czechia to dictate the game despite being overwhelmed on the glass and around the basket.

And still, China survived.

They survived because Han Xu kept giving them an interior anchor, because the rebounding advantage created possessions that should have disappeared, and because Shuyu Yang kept making shots when China desperately needed someone to manufacture offense.

Then Czechia left the door open.

Two missed free throws gave China one last possession in regulation. Yang drove to the rim with 3.9 seconds remaining and tied the game.

Five more minutes.

By then, a game Czechia had led for more than 33 minutes no longer belonged to them.

China escaped 74-70 in overtime.

Czechia takes away the obvious answer

China began exactly where everyone expected.

Inside.

Its first three makes came at the rim, repeatedly targeting individual mismatches and forcing Czechia to deal with a frontcourt it could not match physically. Han Xu established herself early, and China built a 14-9 advantage with 6:26 remaining in the first quarter.

Czechia called timeout and changed the game.

The initial attempt had been a 2-3 zone designed to limit some of those mismatches, but coming out of the timeout Czechia returned to man-to-man with considerably more aggression. Passing lanes tightened. The paint became crowded. Interior catches were harder to complete.

A three out of the timeout was followed by a steal and a transition basket.

Five straight points.

14-14.

When Zhang Ziyu entered with 4:36 remaining, Czechia became even more aggressive. One defender was rarely enough. Sometimes two came. Occasionally three.

Zhang did a good job moving the ball out of that pressure, but Czechia’s rotations behind the double were excellent. The point was not simply to stop Zhang from scoring. It was to make China complete the next pass, then the next decision, then the next one.

China struggled to do it cleanly.

From the 6:26 mark until just 38 seconds remained in the quarter, China did not score.

Siyu Wang finally ended the drought with an and-one drive, but Czechia had already transformed a five-point deficit into a 22-17 lead.

Czechia wins the possession battle

The same pattern carried through the second quarter.

Czechia was patient against China’s zone, moving the ball rather than forcing the first available shot. When the defense shifted, the ball moved with it. When driving lanes appeared, Czechia attacked them and created kick-out opportunities.

At the other end, the defensive pressure remained relentless.

China could still score once it established the ball inside. The problem was getting there without a pass being deflected, an entry denied or a possession simply losing its structure.

At halftime, Czechia led 41-33.

The contrast was already clear. China was efficient inside, while Czechia was getting more value from the perimeter and from the extra possessions created by defensive pressure.

Julie Pospíšilová supplied the early scoring punch with 11 first-half points, while Veronika Voráčková and Gabriela Andělová helped give Czechia enough creation around her. Han had 11 points and six rebounds for China, but every attempt to play through the frontcourt came with another layer of pressure attached.

Czechia had found a way to make China’s greatest strength expensive.

China pushes back, Czechia adjusts again

China opened the second half poorly, committing three turnovers in the first two minutes.

Yet Czechia suddenly stopped making threes.

That gave China room to breathe.

An 8-2 run cut the deficit to 43-41 and forced Czechia into another timeout with 6:59 remaining. For the first time since the opening minutes, the game appeared ready to tilt back toward China.

Czechia’s response was simple and smart.

If the threes were no longer falling, attack the basket.

Rather than continuing to live from the perimeter, Czechia began looking for paint touches and using penetration to force China’s defense into rotation. The adjustment stabilized the offense and restored some control.

By the end of the quarter, Czechia remained ahead 53-48 after a buzzer-beater created through a drive-and-kick.

China was winning the physical battle.

Czechia was winning the possession battle.

That tension carried the game into the fourth.

The game tightens

China finally began making Czechia feel its own defensive pressure.

Passing lanes became harder to access and the drive-and-kick sequences that had produced so much good offense earlier were no longer arriving as naturally. Han then stepped outside and hit a three to put China ahead 56-55 with 6:12 remaining.

China briefly tried to make the frontcourt even bigger.

Han and Zhang shared the floor with 5:44 remaining, but the experiment lasted only one possession at each end. China turned the ball over on the inbounds, allowing Czechia to score in transition, and Zhang was called for an offensive foul on the next possession before returning to the bench.

It was a tiny sequence that captured China’s afternoon perfectly.

The potential advantage was enormous.

Accessing it remained complicated.

Turnovers and shot-clock violations continued to pile up, and China called timeout with 2:55 left trailing 59-56. By the final minute, both teams were fighting through defensive pressure, poor decisions and possessions that seemed to become heavier with every second.

Czechia still led 64-59 with 27 seconds remaining.

Then the margin for error disappeared.

One last chance

Czechia had an opportunity to close the game at the free-throw line.

Eliška Joklová missed both.

China had 3.9 seconds.

Yang took the ball and went.

No complicated action. No time for one.

She attacked the basket and finished the layup.

64-64.

Overtime.

After everything Czechia had done to keep China from comfortably reaching the rim, the possession that extended the game ended there.

Now Czechia had to recover from being one free throw away from making overtime unnecessary.

Yang finishes the comeback

China entered the extra period with momentum, but overtime carried the same tension that had defined the previous 40 minutes.

Zhang returned with 3:26 remaining for a baseline out-of-bounds possession, another attempt to exploit a matchup Czechia had spent all afternoon trying to erase.

She traveled.

Back to the bench.

China still led 69-66.

This time, Yang provided the stability.

She had spent the second half increasingly taking responsibility for possessions that were becoming difficult to organize, and her shot-making finally gave China the separation it had chased all afternoon.

With 1:22 remaining, she had reached 17 points across the second half and overtime, and China led 73-66.

Even then, Czechia would not disappear.

Another Chinese turnover with 17.2 seconds left became a Czech steal and score, cutting the margin to three.

But there was no second escape.

China finished it, 74-70.

A brutal ending to a game Czechia controlled

Han Xu finished with 22 points, 14 rebounds and four assists, while Shuyu Yang added 18 points and five assists, most of them arriving when China desperately needed someone to create.

Czechia led for 33 minutes and eight seconds.

China led for eight minutes and 38.

For almost the entire afternoon, Czechia had the game where it wanted it.

Then two free throws missed.

Yang attacked the rim.

Tie game.

Overtime.

And after spending so long trying to take the game away from China, Czechia watched it disappear in five final minutes.

Belgium has produced more beautiful basketball at this World Cup. There have been stretches when the Cats have made the game look almost effortless, with quick decisions and precise passing repeatedly creating high-quality shots.

Against Puerto Rico, beauty came in smaller doses.

Belgium went deeper into the rotation and never seemed interested in turning the afternoon into a race. Puerto Rico brought enough physicality to make every possession more demanding, competed on the glass and gave Emma Meesseman one of her most difficult scoring nights of the tournament. Yet Belgium led for 38 minutes and 22 seconds and never trailed.

At the center of it was Julie Allemand.

Her 11 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists tell part of the story. The way Belgium functioned whenever she was on the floor tells more. During the second quarter, one of those assists took her to 100 for her Women’s World Cup career, making her just the fourth player in competition history to reach triple figures.

For one of the finest organizers in international basketball, it was a fitting milestone to reach on a day defined by timing, patience and precision.

Allemand brings order to a messy start

The opening minutes were untidy. Shots came up short, reads were rushed and neither offense immediately found a reliable source of production.

Puerto Rico compensated with energy. Its defenders were active, its effort around the basket was obvious and several possessions created reasonable opportunities, but the finishing was not there. Belgium was hardly sharp itself, yet gradually began separating because its decisions became cleaner.

Allemand did not need to score to change that. By the end of the first quarter, she already had five assists, repeatedly helping Belgium turn ordinary actions into clean opportunities by waiting for the defense to commit and delivering the ball at the right moment.

Julie Vanloo supplied the shot-making around her. Three early threes gave Belgium a perimeter threat Puerto Rico struggled to match, and an awkward opening slowly became a 20-13 Belgian lead.

That became even clearer when Allemand left the floor early in the second quarter. Puerto Rico pushed back, Belgium’s offense became less organized as the rotation deepened and the lead fell to 24-22.

Once Allemand returned, the ball reached better places and the decisions became cleaner. Midway through the quarter, she hit a three to push the margin back to five. By then she had also reached the 100-assist landmark, joining a group only three other players in Women’s World Cup history had entered before her.

Belgium went into halftime ahead 40-32.

Puerto Rico had held its own physically and found more success around the basket, but Belgium’s superior organization and perimeter shooting had created the separation.

Puerto Rico refuses to let the game become easy

There was no Belgian explosion after halftime.

Puerto Rico made sure of that.

Trinity San Antonio was disruptive defensively, and Imani McGee-Stafford increasingly imposed herself inside and on the offensive glass. Every Belgian possession seemed to carry a little more contact, and nobody felt it more than Meesseman.

Puerto Rico denied her comfortable catches and made finishing unusually difficult. Meesseman never found her scoring touch and eventually finished with six points on 2-of-9 shooting.

What mattered was that Belgium never allowed that to distort the offense.

Meesseman continued rebounding, facilitating and protecting the rim, while the Cats simply let the game find other scorers. Vanloo kept spacing the floor, Maxuella Lisowa-Mbaka attacked openings and Kyara Linskens remained productive inside.

That collective structure prevented one poor shooting night from becoming a team-wide problem.

Puerto Rico stayed within range because its physicality kept producing something. McGee-Stafford was excellent, San Antonio disturbed Belgium’s execution and the game remained alive at 58-50 after three quarters.

But Belgium kept finding enough good possessions to stay ahead.

Belgium manages the finish

The Cats opened the fourth quarter well enough to force a quick Puerto Rican timeout, but there was never a sustained attempt to turn the closing minutes into something more chaotic.

Belgium also appeared somewhat fatigued compared with its usual energy. The team had dealt with the disruption of a 2 a.m. evacuation and faced a shorter recovery window than Australia before the teams’ meeting the following day. Whether either factor directly shaped the approach is impossible to know, but Belgium clearly preferred a more measured finish.

The familiar basketball still appeared in flashes: the early read, the extra pass, the perfectly timed cut creating an opening somewhere else. It simply came within a game that increasingly felt less about spectacle and more about getting through the afternoon efficiently.

Belgium did exactly that, closing out a 76-64 victory without allowing Puerto Rico to turn its persistence into a genuine threat to the result.

Lisowa-Mbaka led Belgium with 16 points off the bench, Vanloo added 15 points, six rebounds and five assists, and Linskens scored 12. McGee-Stafford was outstanding for Puerto Rico with 25 points and 13 rebounds, while Arella Guirantes added 15 and San Antonio finished with seven assists.

Yet this was Allemand’s game in a different sense.

Not because she scored the most or produced the loudest sequence, but because she read the game better than anyone else.

She knew when to create, when to hold a possession together and when simply to move the ball onward.

And somewhere in the middle of all that, another pass reached its destination and became career assist No. 100.

Only three women in World Cup history had reached that number before her.

On an afternoon when Belgium did not need to be spectacular, Julie Allemand showed how much can be decided by seeing the game one step ahead.

Italy knew it could not beat the United States by trading athleticism and open-floor creation. Its path was to take away USA’s easiest offense and force the game into the half court.

For nearly 40 minutes, it worked.

USA shot 29 percent from the field, Italy erased a 15-point deficit and moved ahead 50-48 with 4:46 remaining, turning what should have been a talent mismatch into 40 minutes of beautiful ugliness.

The Americans still escaped. Breanna Stewart produced the final lead change, Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray found the baskets that finally created separation, and USA survived 55-52 after being pushed closer to the edge than anyone had managed at this World Cup.

Italy finds the game it needs

The opening minutes were not especially encouraging for Italy. Decisions came too quickly, some reads were rushed and eight first-quarter turnovers gave USA the one source of offense the Italians desperately needed to avoid: possessions that did not require the Americans to solve a set defense.

A game that had been 11-8 stretched to 19-8 by the end of the quarter, and USA eventually pushed the margin to 23-8 early in the second.

Yet the scoreboard was hiding something important. The Americans were not generating consistent advantages once Italy could get its defense organized. Neither team made a three in the opening quarter, the rebounding battle was even, and USA’s early separation had been driven much more by Italian mistakes than by overwhelming half-court offense.

Italy gave the Americans several problems once the game settled. Its 2-3 zone crowded the interior and disrupted USA’s spacing. In man-to-man, the Italians switched effectively in pick-and-roll and their bigs held up remarkably well when USA tried to attack through post-ups, absorbing contact and preventing size from becoming an automatic source of efficient offense.

That combination mattered. USA could not simply move from one obvious advantage to another when the first option failed.

Once Italy cut down the turnovers, the margin began shrinking.

USA’s offense became increasingly labored in the second quarter, while Italy showed the patience missing from its opening possessions. Cecilia Zandalasini became central to the comeback, providing difficult shot-making on a day when clean looks were rare.

The whistle added another layer of tension. Zandalasini picked up her third foul, Italy’s bench was eventually assessed a technical, and several calls tested the Italians’ composure. They stayed in the fight.

By halftime, the 15-point deficit had become six. USA led 30-24 while shooting only 32 percent from the field and had yet to make a three. Italy was hardly efficient itself, but it had a 21-19 rebounding advantage and had already shown that this would not become an easy offensive afternoon for the Americans.

The upset still required an enormous amount of work, but it no longer felt impossible.

Zandalasini turns resistance into belief

Zandalasini opened the second half by knocking down another difficult shot, and Italy kept coming.

There was almost no easy offense available for either team, which gave every successful possession more weight. Two Sara Madera free throws finally completed the comeback midway through the third quarter.

Italy 33, USA 32.

Almost 26 minutes had been played, and the United States had 32 points.

Zandalasini supplied much of the difficult offense required at the other end and reached 14 points by the end of the third quarter. Italy continued competing on the glass as well, ensuring that USA could not simply compensate for its poor shooting through overwhelming second chances.

At one point, the score was 39-36 with 12 minutes remaining.

It was not clean basketball, and that was exactly why it had become so compelling. A rebound could feel like an event. A turnover could change the complexion of the next minute. A made shot mattered because there was no guarantee another one was coming soon.

USA recovered enough to take a 42-39 lead into the fourth, but the nature of the game had changed completely.

Italy was no longer trying to stay close.

It could win.

Villa creates what the game has been denying

USA missed its first six field-goal attempts of the fourth quarter.

With 7:05 remaining, Italy tied the game at 44.

Then Matilde Villa began doing something almost nobody had managed consistently all afternoon: creating separation off the dribble.

When USA gave her a mismatch, Villa used her handle and shiftiness to move the defender and attack the resulting opening. Recognizing a favorable matchup was not enough in this game; someone still had to create something from it.

Villa could.

With 4:46 remaining, she scored again.

Italy 50, USA 48.

The team that had trailed 23-8 was now less than five minutes from one of the biggest results of the tournament.

USA first trimmed the deficit to 50-49 at the free-throw line. Then, with 3:20 remaining, Stewart knocked down a jumper to move the Americans back in front, 51-50. It was the eighth lead change of the afternoon and the last.

Seventeen seconds later came one of the game’s most consequential whistles.

Zandalasini attacked and was called for an offensive foul on a play that had the potential to become an and-one opportunity. In a game being decided possession by possession, the difference between those outcomes was enormous, and the call deepened Italy’s frustration with the officiating on an afternoon when the physicality had not always appeared to be judged consistently.

But USA still had to take advantage.

Young scored to make it 53-50. Gray followed with another basket, and suddenly the Americans led 55-50 with 1:07 remaining. After nearly an entire afternoon without breathing room, USA had finally found five points of it.

Villa immediately took two back, cutting the deficit to 55-52 with 57 seconds remaining.

Italy was still alive, but there would be no final basket.

USA survives the game Italy built

The final shooting numbers are extraordinary.

USA finished 16-of-56 from the field and 1-of-12 from three. Jackie Young was the only American player to make more than two field goals.

Italy even won the rebounding battle 43-42 and held a 22-20 advantage in points in the paint.

Where it hurt itself was with the ball.

Eighteen turnovers gave USA four more than Italy could force at the other end, and the Americans converted enough of those mistakes into offense to survive. The free-throw line became another crucial source of points, with USA going 22-of-30 compared with Italy’s 14-of-20 on a day when made field goals were exceptionally difficult to find.

Young led USA with 10 points. Angel Reese added eight, while Bueckers finished with seven points, five rebounds, two assists, two steals and two blocks. Stewart shot 1-of-9 but collected 11 rebounds.

For Italy, Zandalasini finished with 14 points and seven rebounds after carrying a significant share of the difficult shot creation while navigating foul trouble. Mariella Santucci scored nine off the bench, and Villa’s six points hardly describe the importance of what she produced late.

USA was the fair winner because it made enough plays when the final possessions arrived. Italy had turned a 23-8 deficit into a 50-48 lead with fewer than five minutes remaining and pushed the tournament favorite to the final handful of possessions.

The Americans still found a way out, 55-52.

The group stage reaches its final day with all 16 teams stepping onto the floor and almost nothing left unresolved.

Some teams are still fighting simply to reach the knockout rounds. Others have already qualified but can dramatically improve their path by winning the group or securing second place. By the end of the day, every remaining qualification question and every group position will be settled.

After two games of learning what each team does well and where it can be attacked, there is no longer much room for experimentation.

Today, the adjustments have to work.

Belgium vs. Australia: Fighting for the top

Belgium and Australia arrive tied at the top of the group, and the winner takes first place.

That matters well beyond the standings. Finishing first should keep the winner away from the United States until a potential final, giving this game major implications for the knockout bracket before either team even reaches it.

Australia has the physical profile to create problems Belgium has not had to solve often. Its frontcourt size and work on the offensive glass can extend possessions, and Belgium will need to finish defensive stops rather than assume the initial contest is enough.

The larger challenge comes at the other end.

Belgium’s offense can hurt teams in almost every setting. Give the Cats transition and they can punish a defense before it is organized. Force them into the half court and the movement, passing, interior creation and individual shot-making are still there.

Australia therefore needs to take away more than one thing.

Belgium faces a similar challenge in transition. The Opals are much more dangerous when they can defend, rebound and run, so controlling the glass also becomes the first step toward controlling Australia’s offense.

Rest could provide one small variable as well, with Australia having almost seven additional hours between games.

There is very little separating these teams. Australia can make this physical and uncomfortable, but Belgium’s ability to create quality offense in more ways gives the Cats a slight edge.

Puerto Rico vs. Türkiye: Win and advance

This is the clearest qualification game of the day.

Both teams are still searching for their first victory, and the winner moves into the knockout rounds. The loser is done.

Puerto Rico has already shown it can make stronger opponents uncomfortable defensively, particularly with its zone. The much bigger question is whether it can score enough to take advantage of those stretches.

Its half-court offense has been one of the least reliable in the tournament, and Türkiye has a much clearer mechanism for creating advantages.

That begins with Sevgi Uzun.

Türkiye leaned heavily on the pick-and-roll against Belgium, with Uzun functioning as the engine that allowed the offense to find the roller, attack herself or move the ball toward the space created by the coverage. Puerto Rico has to disturb that process before Türkiye settles into rhythm.

Slowing Uzun would give Puerto Rico a chance to turn this into the kind of low-scoring game it needs.

Türkiye is still the better offensive team and should be favored to take the final knockout spot available between these two.

Hungary vs. Korea: Second place on the line

Hungary and Korea enter level in the standings, and the winner guarantees second place in the group.

That is not a cosmetic difference. Second place means a more favorable position entering the knockout stage, so both teams have a real incentive to treat this like far more than a seeding game.

The matchup comes down to two very different ways of stressing a defense.

Hungary will want to play through Dorka Juhász and Virág Takács-Kiss, whose interior production carried them against Nigeria. Korea does not possess the same physical profile inside, and Hungary should test that immediately.

Korea’s response will be movement.

Against France, its best basketball came when the offense stayed in constant motion through handoffs, cuts and quick decisions. Hungary has already shown problems containing the ball in man-to-man defense, and Korea can force those defenders to cover considerably more space than they would prefer.

There may also be an opportunity to attack Hungary before its offense even reaches the frontcourt. Hungary’s guards have struggled against pressure, while Korea compensates for its lack of size with excellent activity and aggression around the ball.

That creates a fascinating balance: Hungary should own the interior, while Korea has the tools to make the game faster and more uncomfortable on the perimeter.

This should be close. Hungary’s size and Korea’s three-point shooting may ultimately decide who claims second.

Nigeria vs. France: France is in, Nigeria still needs a win

France has already secured its place in the quarterfinals.

Nigeria enters still searching for its first victory and needing to produce its best basketball of the tournament against the strongest opponent in the group.

That creates an unusual game because France has little reason to overload its most important players, but even a reduced workload for the starters leaves Nigeria facing an extremely difficult matchup.

Nigeria’s best stretches in this tournament have come through physicality, offensive rebounding and aggressive downhill play. France can match all of that while adding considerably more shot creation, depth and defensive versatility.

For Nigeria to make this competitive, the good stretches cannot come in waves. It will need to protect the ball, finish efficiently and sustain its defensive intensity for far longer than it has managed so far.

France may use this game to spread the minutes and protect key players before the quarterfinals.

It should still be the clear favorite.

Japan vs. Spain: Everything still to play for

Both teams won on opening day and lost their second game, leaving their group position unresolved entering the final round.

The stakes are obvious: neither can afford another poor performance with qualification and placement still being decided on the final day.

Their preferred versions of the game could hardly be more different.

Spain should want to slow the tempo, execute in the half court and use its frontcourt advantage. Megan Gustafson could become particularly important if Spain consistently establishes her inside rather than allowing Japan to dictate the game from the perimeter.

Japan wants almost the opposite.

The faster this becomes, the more opportunities Japan has to move Spain’s bigger lineups through space, attack before the defense is organized and create the volume of threes that can overturn a physical disadvantage.

Germany showed how difficult life becomes for Japan when those threes disappear. Japan finished 3-of-27 from deep in that loss.

Against Spain, the equation could flip just as dramatically if the shots start falling.

Spain has the broader advantage and should be favored, but Japan has a weapon capable of changing the game very quickly.

Germany vs. Mali: Another decisive game in a wide-open group

Germany and Mali both enter the final day at 1-1, with every team in the group still alive and the final standings yet to be settled.

Mali already produced one of the results of the tournament by beating Spain. Germany responded to its opening loss by handling Japan.

Now both arrive at a game that can shape who advances and where they finish.

Mali’s physicality made Spain uncomfortable, but Germany is considerably more willing to play through contact, rebounding battles and imperfect possessions. The disorder Mali can create may therefore bother Germany less than it bothered a Spanish team that prefers greater control.

Germany should also look aggressively toward the offensive glass.

Spain collected 20 offensive rebounds against Mali despite losing the game, and Germany has the personnel to make that weakness expensive if Mali cannot finish defensive possessions.

The defensive variety is another challenge.

Germany can change coverages without sacrificing much physicality, and Mali will need the same patience it showed in the fourth quarter against Spain rather than relying entirely on guards breaking the first line and creating from there.

Germany is the favorite, but Mali has already shown that no team in this group can assume control will arrive simply because it should.

USA vs. Czechia: Opposite ends of the group

USA enters from the top of the group, while Czechia sits at the other end needing a major result on the final day.

The basketball problem is difficult enough before the standings even enter the conversation.

Both teams are comfortable playing fast, but an open game gives the Americans exactly what they want: transition opportunities, space for their creators and possessions that allow their athleticism and depth to take over before the defense can organize.

Czechia has talented perimeter players capable of generating offense, but USA has the defensive personnel to pressure those creators while still protecting everything behind them.

There is no obvious area in which Czechia holds a meaningful structural advantage.

USA is the overwhelming favorite.

Italy vs. China: Second place at stake

Italy and China both enter 1-1, and this game will go a long way toward determining who finishes second in the group.

That makes the tactical questions especially important because the reward is not merely another win, but a stronger position entering the knockout stage.

China presents perhaps the most unusual defensive problem Italy has faced so far because Zhang Ziyu is not a conventional mismatch that can simply be erased through switching and intelligent help.

Her size changes the possession.

Italy’s defense has been excellent at removing advantages through communication, physicality and collective positioning, but defending Zhang may require adjustments that test how much Italy can change without losing the identity that has made it successful.

China should also look to run whenever possible, particularly when Zhang is not on the floor. Playing quickly can prevent Italy from establishing the set defense that has made half-court possessions so difficult for opponents.

At the other end, China’s zone could become one of the defining tactical questions of the game.

Italy has not consistently produced easy half-court offense, so its ability to find the soft spots, move the defense and avoid allowing possessions to become stagnant will matter enormously.

This feels like one of the closest games of the day.

China has the most unusual individual matchup advantage. Italy has the more reliable defensive structure and has already shown it can survive uncomfortable games.

That gives Italy the slight edge, with second place waiting for the team that handles the margins better.