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Competition at the FIBA U-17 Women’s World Cup gave the USA Basketball squad all it could handle.
That included Sunday’s gold medal game between the USA and Spain. Despite a late deficit, the Americans found a way to capture an 82-73 victory over Spain in Brno, Czechia.
The victory guided Team USA to its fourth straight gold medal and seventh out of the eight U-17 tournaments in history.
“Going into this, we knew there's some tremendous teams,” USA head coach Steve Gomez said. “And for our girls to be that tough in 19 days to be able to come together and fight like that, it's a testament to those 12 kids because nothing was easy.”
Micah Ojo led Team USA with 20 points. Arianna Robinson chipped in 14 points, while Nation Williams finished with a double-double (10 points, 10 rebounds), two steals and three blocks.
Erasing a Late Deficit
USA led 27-23 following the opening quarter. Spain went on a 16-14 run in the second quarter, but the Americans had a 41-39 advantage at the half.
After Team USA maintained a 61-58 lead after three quarters. However, Spain turned a corner in the final quarter.
Isabel Hernandez, who led all scorers with 28 points, knocked down a 3-pointer to give Spain a 70-69 lead. From there, Spain held onto a 73-71 lead.
Then, Team USA kicked it into high gear and went on a 11-0 run until the end of regulation to capture gold.
“Some of these girls, they’re just gamers, and they know when to make the right play,” Gomez said. “Each of those games, when it got close, we had some key players make key plays.”
Ivanna Wilson Manyacka Named MVP
Manyacka's impressive showing at the U-17 Tournament led to her second straight international MVP award. Manyacka was also honored with the MVP award at the U-16 AmeriCup in 2025.
The 5-star forward out of The Bullis School (MD) finished with nine points, 10 boards, three assists, a block and a steal in the gold medal game.
Manyacka, the 2025-26 Gatorade Maryland Girls Basketball Player of the Year, did a little bit of everything in her World Cup games. She recorded a double-double (14 points, 11 rebounds) and three steals in Team USA’s 74-72 win over Australia on July 12.
In USA’s 117-24 win over Ivory Coast on July 11, Manyacka tallied 21 points, four assists, six steals and two blocks. Manyacka then had 14 points, eight rebounds and two steals in USA’s 86-60 win over Canada in the World Cup semifinals on Saturday.
Through seven games, Manyacka averaged 12.9 points, six rebounds and 2.6 steals per game for the Americans.
Facing Tough Competition
Team USA may have gone 7-0 and scored 100-or-more points in three of the seven games, but overall competition was fierce.
Two of the Americans’ victories were by single digits, including their group play win over Australia (74-72) and the gold medal triumph against Spain (82-73). Even the playoff victories over Slovakia and Canada took a bit more to reach the end.
With a steady balance of opponents, Team USA still managed to average a 39.8 point margin.
Double-Double Machine
Williams, a 5-star standout forward out of Las Vegas (NV), recorded a double-double in four of Team USA’s seven games.
The Gatorade Nevada Player of the Year racked up impressive in each of those games:
- July 11 vs. Ivory Coast – 11 points, 11 rebounds, six steals and two blocks.
- July 15 vs. Mexico – 10 points, 15 rebounds and four blocks.
- July 18 vs. Canada – 14 points, 11 rebounds and six steals.
- July 19 vs. Spain – 10 points, 10 rebounds, two steals and three blocks.
Williams averaged 8.0 points, 9.1 rebounds, 2.7 steals and 1.9 blocks a game for the Americans.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/high-school as 4 Takeaways from USA Basketball’s Gold Medal Performance at U-17 Women’s World Cup.
