Team USA pulled off a narrow, hard-fought 55-52 victory over Italy on Sunday to advance directly to the 2026 FIBA Women’s World Cup Quarterfinals. While a win is still a win, the final score raised alarms among analysts.
Despite boasting a deeper talent pool, the Americans barely scraped a win against an Italian squad making its first tournament appearance since 1994.
Rosalina Lee Criticises Team USA’s Coaching and Broken Offense After Close Win Against Italy
The dismal 28.6% (16-of-56) from the field and 8.3% (1-of-12) from three-point range, along with 14 turnovers, served as a jarring wake-up call for the World Cup favorites. The USA started strong, posting 19 points in the first quarter against Italy’s 8, and entered halftime leading 30-24.
However, Italy switched gears and outscored the USA 28-25 in the second half, throwing their opponents off rhythm and limiting them to only one made three-pointer. The early lead ultimately helped Kara Lawson’s side to escape with a 3-point win.
Basketball analyst and WNBA content creator, Rosalina Lee, broke down the messy victory in a post-game breakdown in her latest YouTube video titled “Team USA gets a wake-up call in close game against Italy.”
Lee pointed out that as the W continues to bring in top European talent, international teams now share similar professional experience, making them deeply familiar with each other’s styles, strengths, and weaknesses.
While hoping that the clash against Italy would serve as a “get it out of your system” game for Team USA, she added:
“I think a lot of it had to do with coaching,” Lee stated during her analysis. “I think the offense looked terrible. Like Caitlin Clark, Breanna Stewart, everybody, everyone was just bricking. The score ended at 55-52, which sets another historic precedent, but a bad historic precedent, as Team USA has not scored that low in total points since 1971.”
“So, if they play like this against any other good team like Spain or Australia, and especially France, you know, they were just sitting back watching and laughing at this game,” Lee continued. “There could be another historic upset if Team USA doesn’t win Gold.”
“I know that there are going to be games like this potentially, where you’re testing a lot out. Italy really did take advantage of that,” Lee explained. “And I got to say this reflects very badly on the coaching. Everything was just so very discombobulated, and without anybody running the offense, this is the kind of game that you get.”
The numbers back up the frustration: Team USA failed to score 60 points for the first time in over five decades and had to rely on late-game defense to hold off Italy’s second-half surge.
Team USA will now face Czechia on Monday in their third game of the tournament, looking to resolve the issues exposed during their clash with Italy and maintain their World Cup streak.
