ISTANBUL — After dominantly winning another world championship, the U.S. women’s basketball team left no doubt of the gap between the Americans and the rest of the world.
And with so much young talent in the system, it might be a while before anyone can catch up.
Maya Moore scored 18 points and earned MVP honors as the Americans beat Spain 77-64 on Sunday to win a second straight world title.
With Moore, Brittney Griner, Tina Charles and a host of others still yet to reach their primes, it’s a scary thought.
“This was a great first taste,” Griner said. “It leaves me hungry for more. I’m going to pin this medal up on my wall. It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever won.”
With the exception of the Australia game, when Griner got in early foul trouble, the 6-foot-8 star was exceptional in making the all-tournament team. She had the first dunk in tournament history in the opener against China and dominated on both ends of the court.
“She has potential to be one of the best ever,” coach Geno Auriemma said. “She is very coachable and picks things up very quickly.”
Next up for the Americans is the 2016 Olympics in Rio. There’s no reason to think they won’t be a heavy favorite for a sixth straight gold there.
That Olympics could be the last go-round for Sue Bird and a few others, but with the young core still intact, as well as players like Chiney Ogwumike, Breanna Stewart and Elena Delle Donne in the pipeline, it will be hard to see the U.S. not continuing this run for a long time.
Bird became the most decorated player in world championship history with Sunday’s gold. She has won three gold medals and a bronze in her career.
“It was a great win for us,” Bird said. “We had one goal the entire time this team’s been together and that’s win a gold medal. A lot of people see a lot of talent and think it’s going to be easy and it’s not. Whenever you can win a gold medal and it’s a tough journey, everyone’s happy. I’m definitely proud of this team.”
Lindsay Whalen added 12 points for the United States (6-0), which hasn’t lost in a gold-medal game in the world championship since 1983, when it was beaten by the Soviet Union 84-82. Except for a hiccup in 2006, when the Americans lost to Russia in the semifinals, they have won every Olympic and world championship game since 1996. If not for that upset in Brazil, the U.S. would have five straight world titles.
“I know when I hear 2006, it still makes me mad.,” Bird said of her only bronze medal.
The Americans jumped out to a 13-point lead in the game’s first 4 1/2 minutes. Spain (5-1) could only get within seven the rest of the way.
Moore was the key in that early burst, scoring 11 points during the opening 18-5 run. Her 3-pointers barely moved the net as the Americans blitzed Spain, which was making its first appearance in the championship game.
“It’s always a focus, we want to punch first,” Moore said. “I put pressure on myself and the starting five, we put pressure on ourselves to get a good start, set the tone for the game.”
The Spaniards rallied within 24-17, but then Whalen took over. She had nine points during a 13-0 run by the Americans spanning the end of the first and start of the second quarter to make it a 20-point game. Whalen ended the first quarter with a spectacular drive that ended with a floater in the lane right before the buzzer.
“We knew that we had to come in and provide a spark and I had an aggressive mentality,” Whalen said.
The Americans led 48-29 at the half and by 25 points in the second half before Spain closed the game with a 14-2 run.
“It’s sweet to have a silver medal around your neck as we are one step closer to a gold,” said Sancho Lyttle, who led Spain with 16 points. “But it also hurts because we know we were almost there.”
In other games Sunday, Australia routed Turkey 74-44 to win the bronze medal. Canada topped China 61-53 to finish fifth and France beat Serbia 88-74 for seventh place.
AUSTRALIA 74, TURKEY 44
Marianna Tolo scored 21 points, Penny Taylor added 13 and Australia scored the first 17 points to rout Turkey for the bronze medal.
The Australians (5-1) were coming off a tough 12-point loss to the U.S. in the semifinals but quickly showed there would be no hangover from the defeat the night before.
“We wanted that medal and we knew the way to get it done was on defense,” Taylor said. “It means a lot, when we came into this tournament with the adversity we faced, we pulled together and played as a team. That first quarter defense was something to be proud of. We knew the crowd would be involved in the game and we knew we had to take them out of it.”
Taylor had six points during the game-opening run during which the host-nation missed its first 14 shots much to the chagrin of the crowd.
By the time Lara Sanders, who was known as LaToya Pringle at North Carolina, but since changed both her names because of marriage and passport issues, hit a turnaround jumper with 2:14 left in the first quarter Turkey was already out of it.
The Turkish team cut its deficit to 21-12, but then Australia scored 11 straight to make it a 20-point game. It only got worse from there for Turkey (4-2).
After the game the Turkish team honored Esmeral Tuncluer, who was retiring after the worlds. Her teammates threw her in the air and gave her a trophy.
Australia won a gold medal at the 2006 worlds, but failed to reach the medal stand in 2010 finishing a disappointing fifth. The Australians won the bronze at the London Olympics.
CANADA 61, CHINA 53
Kim Gaucher scored 16 points and Miranda Ayim added 15 to help Canada beat China and finish fifth. It’s Canada’s best finish in the worlds since winning a bronze medal in 1986.
“It’s gigantic to be a top five team in the world,” said Canada coach Lisa Thomaidis. “It certainly didn’t think it was in the cards for us earlier this season. We improved so much each and every game. For us to finish fifth, it’s better than I could have imagined. It’s gigantic for this program.”
UConn freshman Kia Nurse had nine points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals.
“Every single time she gets a chance to play in a game with the senior national team she rises to the occasion,” Thomaidis said. “I’m really proud of her. She’s played big minutes for us on the defensive end. Offensively that’s going to come, she’s playing against the best players in the world.”
Canada (4-3) slowly pulled away from China (3-4) getting its lead up to 10 in the fourth quarter.
Shao Ting scored 12 points and Wen Lu added 11 for China, which matched its sixth place finish at the 2002 worlds.
FRANCE 88, SERBIA 74
Ana Maria Cata-Chitiga scored 16 points while Diandra Tchatchouang and Helena Ciak each added 15 to lead France over Serbia in the seventh-place game.
France (4-3) had much bigger aspirations coming into the tournament coming off a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics. All hopes of any sort of medal were dashed when the French team lost to the Americans in the quarterfinals.
Instead they had to settle for seventh.
Ana Dabovic finished with 19 points to lead Serbia (3-4), which was playing in its first world championship.
Sandrine Gruda didn’t play in the game to rest a few nagging injuries.