2018 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup

The 2018 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup, the 18th edition of FIBA's premier international tournament for women's national basketball teams, was held in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain from 22 to 30 September 2018.^[1] This was the first edition to use the name of FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup. After the last edition in 2014, FIBA changed the name of the competition from the FIBA World Championship for Women, in order to align its name with that of the corresponding men's competition.

2018 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup

Copa Mundial de Baloncesto Femenino FIBA 2018
Tournament details
Host country	Spain
City	Tenerife
Dates	22–30 September
Teams	16 (from 4 confederations)
Venue(s)	2 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	United States (10th title)
Runners-up	Australia
Third place	Spain
Fourth place	Belgium
Tournament statistics
MVP	Breanna Stewart
Top scorer	Liz Cambage (23.8 points per game)
Official website
www.fiba.basketball
← 2014 2022 →

The United States were the two-time defending champions.^[2] This tournament saw the World Cup debut of Belgium, Latvia and Puerto Rico.

The US Team won the final against Australia, to win their third straight and tenth overall title.^[3]

Venues

San Cristóbal de La Laguna	Santa Cruz de Tenerife	San Cristóbal de La Laguna Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Tenerife Sports Pavilion Santiago Martín	Palacio Municipal de Deportes
Group Phase, Qualification for Quarter-Finals, Final Phase	Group Phase, Qualification for Quarter-Finals
Capacity: 5,100	Capacity: 3,600

Hosts selection

The whole bidding process started in October 2014. Bids from two nations were submitted. On 31 October 2014, it was confirmed that Spain and Israel were the bidders.^[4] On 16 December 2014, it was announced that Spain won the bid and would host the upcoming World Cup.^[5]

2018 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup bidding results
Nation	Votes
Spain	18
Israel	5

Qualification

Spain as the hosts automatically qualified for the tournament in December 2014. The United States were the next to qualify after winning Gold at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

The remaining teams were decided over June, July & August 2017 through the Women’s Continental Cups. The continental qualifiers vary in the number of teams; the European qualifiers featured 16 teams, Africa featured 12 teams, Americas featured 10 teams and Asia featured 8 teams. From the 46 teams competing for the final 14 spots, the field was completed by the top five teams from 2017 EuroBasket Women, the top three teams from the 2017 FIBA Women's AmeriCup, the two finalists from the 2017 Women's Afrobasket; as well as the top four teams from the 2017 FIBA Asia Women's Cup, which saw teams from Asia and Oceania compete together for the first time ever.^[6]

Team	Qualification		Appearance			Best Performance	FIBA World Ranking	FIBA Zone Ranking
	Method	Date	Last	Total	Streak
Spain	Host nation	16 December 2014	2014	7	7	Runners-up (2014)	2	1
United States	2016 Summer Olympics	20 August 2016	2014	17	15	Champions (1953, 1957, 1979, 1986, 1990, 1998, 2002, 2010, 2014)	1	1
Belgium	EuroBasket Women	22 June 2017	—	1	1	Debut	28	14
France	EuroBasket Women	22 June 2017	2014	10	5	3rd Place (1953)	3	2
Greece	EuroBasket Women	22 June 2017	2010	2	1	11th Place (2010)	20	9
Latvia	EuroBasket Women	24 June 2017	—	1	1	Debut	26	12
Turkey	EuroBasket Women	24 June 2017	2014	2	2	4th Place (2014)	7	4
South Korea	Women's Asia Cup	27 July 2017	2014	15	15	Runners-up (1967, 1979)	16	4
Australia	Women's Asia Cup	27 July 2017	2014	15	14	Champions (2006)	4	1
China	Women's Asia Cup	27 July 2017	2014	10	10	Runners-up (1994)	10	1
Japan	Women's Asia Cup	27 July 2017	2014	13	3	Runners-up (1975)	13	2
Canada	Women's AmeriCup	12 August 2017	2014	11	4	3rd Place (1979, 1986)	5	2
Argentina	Women's AmeriCup	12 August 2017	2010	9	1	6th Place (1953)	15	5
Puerto Rico	Women's AmeriCup	13 August 2017	–	1	1	Debut	22	6
Nigeria	Women's Afrobasket	26 August 2017	2006	2	1	16th Place (2006)	34	5
Senegal	Women's Afrobasket	26 August 2017	2010	8	1	12th Place (1979)	17	1

Format

The tournament was played in two phases.^[7] In the first phase, the 16 qualified teams were sorted into four groups of four (A-D), each team in a group played each other once, 24 games were played in the first phase. The top team from each group directly advanced to the quarterfinals. The teams that placed fourth in the group stage were eliminated. The teams placed second and third from each group advanced to the quarterfinal qualifications, where the winners of the qualification round then progressed to the quarterfinals, losers were eliminated.

In the second phase, a knockout stage was used to determine the champion. In the quarterfinals the four winners progressed to the semifinals, the four losers played in classification games for 5–8th. In total, 40 games were played over a total of 8 days.

Squads

Main article: 2018 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup squads

Draw

The official draw ceremony took place on 6 February 2018, at San Cristóbal de la Laguna, Island of Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.^[8][9]

Seedings

Included are the respective FIBA World Rankings for women:

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
United States (1)  Australia (4)  Spain (2)  France (3)	Belgium (28)  Greece (20)  Turkey (7)  Latvia (26)	Canada (5)  Argentina (15)  Japan (13)  China (10)	Puerto Rico (22)  South Korea (16)  Nigeria (34)  Senegal (17)

Preliminary round

Group A

Main article: 2018 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup Group A

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	Canada	3	3	0	234	173	+61	6	Quarterfinals
2	France	3	2	1	224	200	+24	5	Qualification round
3	Greece	3	1	2	179	204	−25	4
4	South Korea	3	0	3	169	229	−60	3

Source: FIBA
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head results; 3) Points difference; 4) Points scored.

22 September 2018
South Korea		58–89		France
Greece		50–81		Canada
23 September 2018
Canada		82–63		South Korea
France		75–71		Greece
25 September 2018
South Korea		48–58		Greece
Canada		71–60		France

Group B

Main article: 2018 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup Group B

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	Australia	3	3	0	260	175	+85	6	Quarterfinals
2	Nigeria	3	2	1	217	224	−7	5	Qualification round
3	Turkey	3	1	2	195	201	−6	4
4	Argentina	3	0	3	150	222	−72	3

Source: FIBA
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head results; 3) Points difference; 4) Points scored.

22 September 2018
Australia		86–68		Nigeria
Turkey		63–37		Argentina
23 September 2018
Argentina		43–84		Australia
Nigeria		74–68		Turkey
25 September 2018
Australia		90–64		Turkey
Argentina		70–75		Nigeria

Group C

Main article: 2018 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup Group C

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	Belgium	3	2	1	233	176	+57	5[a]	Quarterfinals
2	Spain (H)	3	2	1	225	196	+29	5[a]	Qualification round
3	Japan	3	2	1	217	220	−3	5[a]
4	Puerto Rico	3	0	3	150	233	−83	3

Source: FIBA
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head results; 3) Points difference; 4) Points scored.
(H) Hosts
Notes:

1. Belgium 1–1, +7 PD; Spain 1–1, +4 PD; Japan 1–1, –11 PD

22 September 2018
Japan		71–84		Spain
Puerto Rico		36–86		Belgium
23 September 2018
Belgium		75–77 (OT)		Japan
Spain		78–53		Puerto Rico
25 September 2018
Japan		69–61		Puerto Rico
Belgium		72–63		Spain

Group D

Main article: 2018 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup Group D

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	United States	3	3	0	289	231	+58	6	Quarterfinals
2	China	3	2	1	227	227	0	5	Qualification round
3	Senegal	3	1	2	203	231	−28	4
4	Latvia	3	0	3	206	236	−30	3

Source: FIBA
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head results; 3) Points difference; 4) Points scored.

22 September 2018
Latvia		61–64		China
United States		87–67		Senegal
23 September 2018
Senegal		70–69		Latvia
China		88–100		United States
25 September 2018
Senegal		66–75		China
Latvia		76–102		United States

Final round

Main article: 2018 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup final round

Qualification round

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Final

28 September

Canada

53

26 September

Spain

68

Spain

63

29 September

Senegal

48

Spain

66

Australia

72

28 September

Australia

83

26 September

China

42

China

87

30 September

Japan

81

Australia

56

United States

73

28 September

Belgium

86

26 September

France

65

France

78

29 September

Turkey

61

Belgium

77

United States

93

Third place

28 September

30 September

United States

71

Spain

67

26 September

Nigeria

40

Belgium

60

Nigeria

57

Greece

56

5–8th place

	5–8th place semifinals				Fifth place
	29 September
	Canada	71
					30 September
	China	76
					China	67
	29 September
					France	81
	France	84
	Nigeria	62
					Seventh place
					30 September
					Canada	73
					Nigeria	72

Final

Main article: 2018 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup Final

30 September 2018 20:00

Boxscore

Australia	56–73	United States
Scoring by quarter: 15–20, 12–15, 11–26, 18–12
Pts: Smith 10 Rebs: Cambage 14 Asts: O'Hea 4		Pts: Griner 15 Rebs: Stewart 8 Asts: Bird 5

Tenerife Sports Pavilion Santiago Martin, San Cristóbal de La Laguna Attendance: 3,715 Referees: Antonio Conde (ESP), Yu Jung (TPE), Yohan Rosso (FRA)

Final standings

#	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Preliminary round				FIBA World Ranking
								Grp	Rank	W–L	GA	Old	New	+/−
	United States	6	6	0	526	404	+122	D	—			1	1
	Australia	6	5	1	471	356	+115	B				4	3	1
	Spain	7	5	2	489	429	+60	C				2	2
4th	Belgium	6	3	3	456	401	+55	C				28	16	12
Eliminated at the quarterfinals
5th	France	7	5	2	532	476	+56	A	—			3	4	1
6th	China	7	4	3	499	543	−44	D				10	7	3
7th	Canada	6	4	2	431	389	+42	A				5	5
8th	Nigeria	7	3	4	448	508	−60	B				34	19	15
Eliminated at the qualification round
9th	Japan	4	2	2	298	307	−9	C	3rd	2–1	0.723	13	10	3
10th	Turkey	4	1	3	256	279	−23	B		1–2	0.650	7	6	1
11th	Greece	4	1	3	235	261	−26	A		1–2	0.597	20	23	3
12th	Senegal	4	1	3	251	294	−43	D		1–2	0.677	17	17
Eliminated at the preliminary round
13th	Latvia	3	0	3	206	236	−30	D	4th	0–3	0.687	26	24	2
14th	South Korea	3	0	3	169	229	−60	A		0–3	0.563	16	18	2
15th	Argentina	3	0	3	150	222	−72	B		0–3	0.500	15	15
16th	Puerto Rico	3	0	3	150	233	−83	C		0–3	0.500	22	22

Qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics

Awards and statistics

Awards

The All-Star Five was revealed on 30 September 2018.^[10]

• MVP: Breanna Stewart
• Breanna Stewart
• Diana Taurasi
• Astou Ndour
• Emma Meesseman
• Liz Cambage

Statistics

Player tournament averages

Points Name PPG[11] Liz Cambage 23.8 Emma Meesseman 18.5 Kia Nurse 18.2 Breanna Stewart 16.3 Kim Mestdagh 16.2

Rebounds Name RPG Emma Meesseman 10.7 Liz Cambage 10.5 Evelyn Akhator 9.0 Laura Nicholls 8.9 Yuki Miyazawa 8.8

Assists Name APG Julie Allemand 8.2 Nako Motohashi 5.8 Laia Palau 5.7 Işıl Alben 5.3 Sue Bird 4.8

Blocks Name BPG Liz Cambage 2.8 Kyara Linskens 1.8 Brittney Griner 1.5 Quanitra Hollingsworth Han Xu 1.4 Astou Ndour

Steals Name SPG Maki Takada 2.8 Ezinne Kalu 2.4 Sarah Michel 2.0 Evanthia Maltsi Nako Motohashi 1.8

Team tournament averages

Points Team PPG[12]  United States 87.7  Australia 78.5  France 76.0  Belgium  Japan 74.5

Rebounds Team RPG  Australia 48.0  United States 47.3  Nigeria 43.4  Canada 42.2  France 40.6

Assists Team APG  Belgium 23.8  United States 23.7  France 23.3  Australia 21.5  China 19.3

Blocks Team BPG  Australia 5.3  United States 4.2  Spain 3.9  Belgium 3.5  France 3.4

Steals Team SPG  Nigeria 9.9  Japan 9.3  Canada 9.2  Spain 9.0  France 8.6

Tournament game highs

Statistic	Player[13]	Total	Opponent	Team[14]	Total	Opponent
Points	Liz Cambage	34	Nigeria (22 Sep)	United States	102	Latvia (25 Sep)
Rebounds	Emma Meesseman	18	Japan (23 Sep)	United States	62	Nigeria (28 Sep)
Assists	Julie Allemand	13	France (28 Sep)	France	30	Nigeria (29 Sep)
Steals	Pamela Rosado Ezinne Kalu	5	Spain (23 Sep)  United States (28 Sep)	Nigeria	13	Greece (26 Sep)  France (29 Sep)
Blocks	Liz Cambage	5	United States (30 Sep)	Australia	8	Nigeria (22 Sep)  United States (30 Sep)

Marketing

The logo and branding identity was unveiled on 5 February 2018 at the La Laguna Gran Hotel in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, the logo is inspired by the treasures of the island of Tenerife, its coastlines and its heart of Spain.

The Mascot Tina the Turtle were also unveiled at the ceremony in the town hall of Santa Cruz de Tenerife on 7 August 2018, 6 Weeks before the Tournament kick off the mascot name is a short form of Tinerfina which means Coming from or Living from Tenerife,^[15] Both Logo and the Mascot were designed by a Tenerife Artist Raul Pena^[16]

References

1. "FIBA Calendar". Archived from the original on September 19, 2015.
2. "USA take down Spain in Turkey 2014 Final to retain world title". fiba.com. 5 October 2014. Archived from the original on October 7, 2014.
3. "USA three-peat as World Champions, punch ticket to Tokyo 2020 Olympics". fiba.basketball. 30 September 2018.
4. "Spain submits candidature to host 2018 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup" (Press release). FIBA. 31 October 2014. Archived from the original on November 2, 2014. Retrieved 26 September 2016. Formerly known as the FIBA World Championship for Women, 2018 marked the first time that FIBA's flagship event for women's basketball is played under its new name.
5. "Spain to host first-ever FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup in 2018" (Press release). FIBA. 16 December 2014. Archived from the original on December 17, 2014.
6. "FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2018". fiba.com. Archived from the original on June 21, 2017.
7. "Competition System – FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2018 – FIBA.basketball". fiba.com. Archived from the original on June 30, 2017.
8. "Official Draw Ceremony". FIBA.
9. "FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2018 draw completed". FIBA.
10. "Stewart named TISSOT MVP, headlines All-Star Five line-up in Tenerife". fiba.basketball. 30 September 2018.
11. Individual statistics
12. Team statistics
13. Pl,yer game highs
14. Team game highs
15. "Tina the turtle unveiled as mascot of FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2018". FIBA.basketball. Retrieved 2021-06-01.
16. Torres, Cristina Morales (2018-08-10). "El onubense Raúl Pena diseña la mascota del Mundial de Baloncesto Femenino 2018". Huelva Buenas Noticias (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-06-01.

External links

• Official website