USA women’s basketball wins 57th straight Olympics game to reach quarterfinals
VILLENEUVE-D’ASCQ, France — Breanna Stewart scored 26 points and the U.S. beat Belgium 87-74 on Thursday night, clinching a spot in the Olympic quarterfinals.
A’ja Wilson added 23 points and 13 rebounds for the Americans, who have a 57-game Olympic winning streak that dates to the 1992 Barcelona Games.
This was one of the closer games during the historic run of seven consecutive gold medals.
Only three contests have been single-digit victories.
The Americans (2-0) faced a loud, spirited pro-Belgium crowd that made up most of the 25,044 in attendance.
The arena is about 30 minutes away from the country’s border.
The two teams met in a pre-Olympic qualifying tournament in February in Belgium, and the U.S. needed a tip-in from Stewart at the buzzer to come away with that win.
On Thursday, Belgium once again tested the Americans like few teams have done during their unprecedented Olympic run.
The U.S. built an early 13-point lead behind Stewart, but Belgium cut it to eight at the half and closed to 50-46 in the third quarter.
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Emma Meesseman scored 24 points and Delaere added 16 for Belgium (0-2), which needs to win its final game against Japan to have any shot of advancing to the elimination round. Julie Vanloo had 11.
