Final time USA did not win FIBA Ladies’s World Cup: Revisiting 2006 U.S. group that was upset by Russia initially appeared on The Sporting Information. Add The Sporting Information as a Most popular Supply by clicking right here.

The US has embraced the highlight within the FIBA Ladies’s World Cup, downing extra foes than most en path to authoring up one of the best file in competitors historical past.

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That run has largely been decked in gold; the People account for greater than half of the gold medals handed out in Ladies’s World Cup historical past.

Group USA’s roster has been chocked filled with starlight through the years. Opposite to in style perception, although, that group hasn’t at all times completed its campaigns on the highest of the rostrum.

With that, here is a take a look at the final time the People did not take the stand with gold dangling round their throats.

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Final time USA did not win FIBA Ladies’s World Cup

The US ladies’s basketball group has claimed gold in every of its final 4 journeys to the FIBA Ladies’s World Cup, cementing its standing because the competitors’s best-ever aspect.

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The final time the People failed to complete the match with a glint of gold medallion draped round their neck was in 2006. That 12 months, Group USA fell to Russia within the semifinals, 75-68, relegating the Anne Donovan-led group to a measly look within the third-place sport.

The U.S. began its match run with a flourish, sweeping apart China and Nigeria by a mixed 80 factors earlier than downing that aforementioned Russian aspect by 10 within the group stage.

Group USA stored its run going within the quarters, dispatching Lithuania by 34. A rematch with Russia beckoned for the People within the semis. Given the quantity of firepower current on that U.S. aspect — the group housed eight present or future Corridor of Famers, together with Diana Taurasi, Sue Fowl, Tamika Catchings and then-Tennessee star Candace Parker — a victory was all however assured.

Russia had totally different plans, nonetheless. The Japanese European aspect, made up largely of gamers who starred within the nation’s home league, opened up a pair of 10-point leads within the first quarter.

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That benefit quickly swelled to twenty after a third-quarter scoring flourish. The People battled again, with Taurasi and Parker combining for 34 factors to energy the U.S. comeback efforts.

Their efforts would solely show beauty in the long run, although. Buoyed by electrical taking pictures from deep, the Russians reduce down their adversaries, securing maybe the largest upset in ladies’s basketball historical past within the course of.

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“They got here out and shot higher than that they had all match,” Donovan mentioned postgame, per Tennessee. “This was the time when you need to step up and carry out and I assumed Russia did an incredible job with that tonight. Hats off to them. We made valiant runs a few occasions deep into the sport, within the fourth quarter twice, however Russia’s lead was too nice for us to come back again.”

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Group USA recovered effectively sufficient to safe a bronze medal end. However the outcome would show a bitter one given U.S. expectations heading into the tourney.

What number of gold medals has USA ladies’s basketball gained in FIBA World Cup?

USA ladies’s basketball has claimed 11 Ladies’s World Cup titles, 5 greater than its closest competitor, the Soviet Union.

The U.S. has completed on the rostrum in all however 5 of its 19 journeys to the tourney. The People final went with out a medal in 1975, after they fell out of the preliminary rounds.

Here is a full view of Group USA’s outcomes by 12 months: