The Americans don’t want to slack their stranglehold on Basketball for men or women, whatever be the category. The NBA in the United States is the most popular sporting obsession and it attracts the best basketball stars from around the world. Therefore, it was hardly surprising that the under-19 American women, who get extensive exposure to the game, dominated the field in the recently concluded U-19 FIBA Women’s World Championship held in Russia. It was the 10th edition of the tournament and USA have now won it 7 times. Their victory in the final against hosts Russia on July 26, 2015 was the sixth on the trot. 16 participating nations from five FIBA regions were divided in 4 Groups of 4 teams each and all of them went to the knock-out stage as well. The preliminary rounds were played merely to determine the team line-up at the play-off stage. The tournament began on July 18, 2016 and concluded on July 26, 2015.
As the tournament progressed, it became clear that USA, Russia, Spain, France, China, Australia, Belgium and Canada were the dominant teams. The only surprise was the early elimination of Serbia, who lost to Canada in the round-of-sixteen. On July 25, the two semifinal games were contested, in which Russia beat Australia 76-57 and USA defeated Spain 80-65. On the last day of the tournament, Russia played against USA in the final, while Australia and Spain contested for the third place.
For the second year in a row Australia claimed the third spot in the 2015 FIBA U-19 Women’s World Championship by beating Spain 69-62. The Australian women had a great start and led 27-9 at one stage. But the Spanish women nearly wiped off that advantage by roaring back into the match. However, Tahlia Tupea’s turned the tide in favor of Australia yet again with some big points at crunch time.