USA spoil home party to land sixth straight U19 Women's Worlds title

CHEKHOV (2015 FIBA U19 Women's World Championship) - The United States are celebrating a stunning sixth consecutive title after defending their crown at the 2015 FIBA U19 Women's World Championship and spoiling the party for host nation Russia with a 78-70 triumph.

Turning point: It was a one-shot game at 68-65 to the USA in the final quarter and they went hard at the Russia defense with seven unanswered points that opened up a double-digit lead and that was always likely to prove too much of a gap to bridge - and so it proved.

Stats Don't Lie: All the talk was about the Russia frontcourt but USA did a magnificent job of grabbing a huge 20 offensive rebounds. They also restricted their opponents to a paltry five second chance points in the whole game.

Game Hero: A'ja Wilson was outstanding and finished with a sublime 30 points and 8 rebounds as she became the highest individual scorer in a game for the USA in this competition.

The Bottom Line: When it comes to heroes for the USA there were actually plenty, since this was a highly-impressive team effort. For example, Azura Stevens did a great job early and finished with 18 points, Napheesa Collier had a slow start but finished with 10 points, 10 boards and a superb six steals. Meanwhile, the cameo of Chatrice White with 10 points off the bench should not be overlooked. Dawn Staley and her team deserve huge praise as they weren't truly tested until this title game and yet they had all the answers during crunch time. Equally it was a good effort from Russia and it was a fitting game to bring the curtain down on any tournament, with the 3,000 crowd appreciating the effort of the hosts. Daria Kolosovskaia was terrific with 19 points and played a real captain's part, while Kseniia Levchenko had a wonderful double-double of 13 points and 10 assists. But the steam ran out of the Russia frontline and that was the biggest factor as USA did the business on the glass.

FIBA