Breanna Stewart Dominates Again: USA Wins Fifth Straight FIBA Title
Breanna Stewart stood at center court in Berlin on Sunday night, gold medal around her neck, history at her back and another tournament in the palm of her hand.
Team USA 97, France 79. A fifth straight FIBA Women’s World Cup title for the Americans. Another masterpiece from the player who has become the program’s defining force.
Stewart didn’t just lead. She dominated.
Twenty-two points. Ten rebounds. Four assists. Every time France threatened to close the gap, the New York Liberty star bent the game back to her will — slipping into gaps, crashing the glass, finding teammates, setting the tone at both ends.
By the final buzzer, there was no debate about the MVP. Again.
Stewart, the standard
This is Stewart’s second World Cup MVP, after 2018. She now owns four World Cup gold medals, joining Sue Bird as the only Team USA player to reach that number. The company tells you everything.
Across the tournament, Stewart averaged 12.8 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists while shooting 55.3% from the field. Efficient, relentless, and always there when the game tilted toward pressure.
“Four World Cups? That’s tied for the most ever,” Team USA coach Kara Lawson said. “She is USA Basketball. When you think of the last 15 years, it’s Stewie. We’re just really lucky to be a part of her era.”
This American team featured seven players making their debut in a major tournament. The inexperience never showed, largely because Stewart refused to let the standard slip.
Asked how she guided such a new group, she didn’t talk about speeches or slogans. She talked about honesty.
“Just being honest. Really being genuine and letting them know how this tournament is, how Europe is, how these teams are always continuing to be better.
“But we’re the standard. We always have been. We are continuing to do that, especially with this gold medal. And not forgetting that. It’s always about us.”
On a night when France threw everything at the United States, that standard held.
Jackie Young steps into the spotlight
Stewart wasn’t alone. Jackie Young, the Las Vegas Aces guard, delivered a performance that belonged on this stage.
Eighteen points. Six rebounds. Five assists. Composed, aggressive, and unafraid of the moment, Young carved up France’s defense and earned her own place on the FIBA All-Tournament Team.
Across the World Cup, Young averaged 12.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.2 assists. She didn’t just complement Stewart; she amplified her.
Stewart and Young headlined an All-Tournament group that reflected the global rise of the women’s game: Spain’s Iyana Martin, Germany’s Leonie Fiebich and France’s Gabby Williams joined them.
Martin, only 20 and already drafted by the Portland Fire, dragged Spain to bronze with a fearless scoring run. She averaged 17.5 points per game, fourth-best in the tournament, and also led Spain in assists (4.2) and steals (2.2). Every possession, she looked like the future.
Fiebich, Stewart’s Liberty teammate, nearly averaged a double-double as Germany finished fourth — 9.9 points, 8.6 rebounds, 3.6 assists. A worker, a connector, a problem on the glass.
Williams, starring for the Golden State Valkyries, lit up the scoring charts for France. She finished third among all players at 18.7 points per game and pushed the French into the final. On most nights, that kind of production wins you the spotlight.
On this one, Stewart took it back.
A résumé that barely fits on one page
The MVP trophy in Berlin is just the latest addition to a résumé that already reads like a career retrospective.
- Two World Cup MVPs.
- Two WNBA MVPs.
- Two WNBA Finals MVPs.
- Olympics MVP in 2021.
- Four straight Final Four Most Outstanding Player awards at UConn.
- Four World Cup titles.
- Three Olympic gold medals.
- Two WNBA championships.
- Four NCAA championships.
And one staggering statistic: Breanna Stewart has never lost a game played in a World Cup, Olympics or NCAA Tournament.
“I pride myself on being consistently great,” she said. “That’s showing up when it’s the big moments, the small moments and all the moments in between. It’s an unrealistic confidence I have in myself.”
Unrealistic or not, it keeps delivering.
In Berlin, with a new generation at her side and a familiar gold medal in her hands, Stewart didn’t just extend USA Basketball’s dynasty.
She reminded everyone whose era this still is — and posed a blunt question to the rest of the world: who, exactly, is going to stop her?
