Sydney : Breanna Stewart scored 17 points and the United States raced out to an early lead to put away Canada 83-43 on Friday, advancing to the gold medal game of the World Cup for the fourth consecutive tournament.
The Americans will face either China or Australia, who played later in the day, for the gold.
The U.S. (7-0), which is on a record pace for points and margin of victory in the tournament, took control of the game early scoring the first 15 points.
The Americans contested every shot on the defensive end as the Canadians missed their first nine attempts from the field. On the offensive end, Stewart, A’ja Wilson and Alyssa Thomas basically got any shot they wanted.
The Americans were up 45-21 at the half and the lead kept expanding in the final 20 minutes. The win was the biggest margin for the U.S. in the medal round topping the 36-point victory over Spain in the 2010 World Cup.
The victory was the 29th in a row in World Cup play for the Americans, who haven’t lost since the 2006 semifinals against Russia.
The Soviet Union holds the World Cup record with 56 straight wins from 1959-86. This is only the second time in the Americans’ storied history they’ve reached four consecutive gold medal contests. They also did it from 1979-90 winning three times.
