Caitlin Clark and Team USA are into the quarterfinals of the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup, and Hungary is next. The game is Thursday, Sept. 10, with tipoff set for 4:30 a.m. CT and 11:30 a.m. in Berlin.
That is the kind of start that puts this tournament on the radar in a hurry. The game will be televised on TNT and streamed on HBO Max, giving viewers a morning look at a matchup that decides whether the USA keeps moving toward the semifinals on Saturday, Sept. 12.
Clark has been central to the run through group play. She leads Team USA in assists at 6.3 per game and is averaging 8.0 points, while Jackie Young is the top scorer at 11.3 points per game and Paige Bueckers and Breanna Stewart are tied at 10.3. Team USA reached this point after a 105-64 rout of Czechia on Sept. 7, a 41-point victory that pushed the Americans to 3-0 and extended their World Cup winning streak to 33 straight games, a run that dates to 2006.
That unbeaten record is also where the sharp edge of this quarterfinal sits. Team USA has done it without A'ja Wilson and Kelsey Plum, who were ruled out four days before the World Cup began for what the team called health reasons. Kara Lawson leads the bench with Stephanie White, Natalie Nakase and Nate Tibbetts, while Jose Fernandez and Tia Jackson serve as scouts, but the missing scoring and interior presence still hangs over a roster that has not been tested by a loss in nearly two decades of World Cup play.
If the United States beats Hungary, it advances to the semifinals and plays the winner of Belgium vs. Germany on Saturday, Sept. 12. For Clark, who is carrying the team’s playmaking while also adding points, Thursday is less about looking back at the streak than proving this version of Team USA can keep it alive without two of its biggest names.
Clark and the Indiana Fever, 26-14, return from the FIBA Women’s World Cup break on Friday, Sept. 18, against the Toronto Tempo, but first comes the game that will tell whether Team USA’s path stays intact or stops in the quarterfinals.
