U.S. beats Australia for gold

Women capture World Cup final

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LA LAGUNA, Spain — Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi shared a hug as the final seconds ran down on a third consecutive World Cup championship.

The pair has been a key part of all three titles and hasn’t lost a World Cup game in nearly 12 years, including Sunday’s win, 73-56, against Australia in the gold-medal game.

Bird now is the most decorated athlete in FIBA World Cup history, winning four gold medals and one bronze.

The victory gave the U.S. 10 World Cup gold medals and was the 22nd win in a row overall for the Americans dating to the bronze medal game in 2006. That was the same year that Australia won its only World Cup title. The Americans lost to Russia in the semifinals that year and haven’t lost since in the World Cup or Olympics.

The U.S. didn’t have its entire team together until a few days before the tournament started as Bird, Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd were winning the WNBA championship with the Seattle Storm. Stewart, who was the WNBA regular season and postseason MVP, added the MVP of the World Cup to her resume after scoring 10 points in the championship game.

“It’s been an incredible few months, that’s for sure,” Stewart said.

Brittney Griner scored 15 points to lead the U.S. and anchored a stellar defensive effort against Liz Cambage. Australia’s star center came into the game averaging 27.2 points in the tournament, but was held to just seven.

She remained the No. 1 enemy of Spanish fans, who jeered every time she touched the ball. Cambage keyed Australia’s win against the host nation in the semifinals. Spain won the bronze medal, beating Belgium, 67-60, earlier Sunday.

After opening a 10-0 lead, it was the first time in the tournament that the U.S. didn’t trail in a game.

“It was huge,” Stewart said about the fast start. “[Taurasi] was talking about being the aggressors as Australia’s used to punching first. Today we were going to punch them first.”

The U.S. led, 35-27, at the half and didn’t give Australia a chance to come back.

This was Australia’s best World Cup finish since 2006. “To beat the USA we had to play really good defense and rebound,” Australia coach Sandy Brondello said. “We contested a lot of shots, but they found too many shooters.”