SANTIAGO, Chile — Mikayla Blakes scored 27 points and the United States beat Brazil 92-84 to secure a berth in next year’s World Cup in Germany.
“What a performance by our team. Knew it would be a tough physical game. It was what we expected,” U.S. coach Kara Lawson said. “Brazil is a wonderful team. The power they have in the frontcourt gave us some challenges. Our team continued to fight, and we felt like if we could wear down with our depth a little bit, maybe in the fourth quarter we could pull away.”
The U.S. team, made up of college players, trailed 66-65 heading into the fourth quarter. Blakes, who finished a stellar freshman season at Vanderbilt and earned MVP of the tournament, hit a 3-pointer early in the period to give the Americans a 70-69 advantage 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 country within five.
The Americans answered every 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 finished with 16 points, hit three of four free throws down the stretch to seal the win.
“It was a hard fought basketball game and we came up on the short end of it,” Brazil coach Pokey Chatman said. “I think the two areas that we wanted to focus on was the rebounding and we didn’t quite handle that and we needed to handle some of their pressure. They turned us over a lot, that resulted in 22 points so we dug ourselves a little hole with that.”
Dantas, who plays for the Indiana Fever, scored 35 points to lead Brazil. Nascimento had 24 points and Kamilla Cardoso added 19. The rest of the Brazilian team scored six points.
The U.S. trailed 47-45 at the half despite Blakes scoring 17 points in the opening two quarters.
The Americans won the AmeriCup in 2019 and 2021, but lost to Brazil in the gold medal game in 2023.
The start of the game was delayed as the bronze medal game between Canada and Argentina went to double overtime. The Canadians won 76-75 on a layup by Michigan star Syla Swords with 1.4 seconds left.
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