US Basketball closes out World Cup qualifying with blowout of Puerto Rico

The United States women’s national basketball team cruised to a 93-55 win over Puerto Rico on Saturday, closing out a dominant World Cup qualifying performance that also included a victory over Belgium.

Ariel Atkins led the scoring charge for Team USA with 14 points, while Allisha Gray, Brionna Jones, Dearica Hamby, Kelsey Mitchell and Jewell Loyd also finished in double digits. The team’s bench recorded 53 of the 93 points.

On the other side of the ball, the U.S. forced 19 turnovers from Puerto Rico and out-rebounded their opponents 27-to-10 in the second half.

“Defensively, I thought we were on point. Offensively, we got an awful lot of good looks that we just didn’t make,” said Team USA head coach Cheryl Reeve. “Overall, once we got through the second quarter, I thought the effort was there on our intentional parts of the game plan.”

The U.S. will next compete in the 2022 FIBA World Cup from Sept. 22-Oct. 1 in Sydney, Australia.