SANTIAGO, Chile — Mikayla Blakes scored 27 points and the USA beat Brazil 92-84 to safe a berth in subsequent 12 months’s World Cup in Germany.
“What a efficiency by our group. Knew it could be a tricky bodily sport. It was what we anticipated,” U.S. coach Kara Lawson mentioned. “Brazil is an excellent group. The ability they’ve within the frontcourt gave us some challenges. Our group continued to combat, and we felt like if we may put on down with our depth just a little bit, possibly within the fourth quarter we may draw back.”
The U.S. group, made up of faculty gamers, trailed 66-65 heading into the fourth quarter. Blakes, who completed a stellar freshman season at Vanderbilt and earned MVP of the event, hit a 3-pointer early within the interval to give the Individuals a 70-69 benefit and sparked a 9-0 run.
South Carolina’s Joyce Edwards capped the spurt with a layup that made it 76-69 with 6:37 left. Bella Nascimento hit two free throws to snap the drought and get the South American nation inside 5.
The Individuals answered each run Brazil made down the stretch and when Damiris Dantas hit a 3-pointer with 40 seconds left to make it 89-84, Hannah Hidalgo, who completed with 16 points, hit three of 4 free throws down the stretch to seal the win.
“It was a tough fought basketball sport and we got here up on the brief finish of it,” Brazil coach Pokey Chatman mentioned. “I feel the 2 areas that we wished to give attention to was the rebounding and we did not fairly deal with that and we wanted to deal with a few of their strain. They turned us over loads, that resulted in 22 points so we dug ourselves just a little gap with that.”
Dantas, who performs for the Indiana Fever, scored 35 points to lead Brazil. Nascimento had 24 points and Kamilla Cardoso added 19. The remainder of the Brazilian group scored six points.
The U.S. trailed 47-45 at the half regardless of Blakes scoring 17 points within the opening two quarters.
The Individuals gained the AmeriCup in 2019 and 2021, however misplaced to Brazil within the gold medal sport in 2023.
The beginning of the sport was delayed because the bronze medal sport between Canada and Argentina went to double additional time. The Canadians gained 76-75 on a layup by Michigan star Syla Swords with 1.4 seconds left.
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