Spain Dominates Mali 97-58, Remains Unbeaten Ahead of Berlin World Cup

Spain's women's national team cruised past Mali in their fourth World Cup warm-up game, maintaining a perfect record on their path to Berlin. With Awa Fam and María Conde already sidelined, Spain connected on 16 three-pointers at an impressive 64% clip and gave the African side no chance. Head coach Miguel Méndez's team will wrap up their World Cup preparations on Sunday, also in Zaragoza, against China's Zhang Ziyu, the 2.20m center (Teledeporte, 21:00).

Spain's women's national team dominated Mali on Saturday at the Príncipe Felipe arena in Zaragoza (97-58) and maintains a flawless World Cup preparation, with four wins in four games. Saturday's victory was particularly significant given that Mali will be one of the opponents facing Miguel Méndez's squad at the championship taking place in Berlin starting Friday, September 4.

Spain's superiority over Mali was evident from the opening three minutes, when the national team raced out to a 10-0 lead. From that point on, Mali's response was never sufficient to close the gap. Spain controlled the pace of play, dominated the boards, and shot with precision. A three-pointer by Alba Torrens closed the first quarter with a commanding lead (25-14), a margin that continued to grow in the second quarter. Particularly when Maite Cazorla (2) and Iyana Martín connected on three three-pointers in less than a minute (38-19, 18:00). It was Cazorla herself who closed the first half with another three-pointer, sending Spain into halftime with a commanding +24 advantage (50-26).

In the second half, Spain only lost some rhythm in the early possessions when Mali switched to a zone defense, but by then the scoring margin was even larger, as the third quarter began with three consecutive three-point plays: two three-pointers from Mariona and Puyo and a 2+1 from Irati (59-30, 23:00). With 16 three-pointers and an impressive 64% shooting percentage, Spain's offense gave Mali no room to maneuver. The African team could only respond with isolated individual plays but couldn't prevent the scoreboard from showing a +44 lead late in the game (97-53, 39:00). Alba Torrens and Iyana Martín, both with 13 points, led Spain's scoring.

Spain will wrap up their World Cup preparations on Sunday, also in Zaragoza, against China's Zhang Ziyu, the 2.20m center (Teledeporte, 21:00).