VILLENEUVE-D’ASCQ, France — Breanna Stewart scored 26 points and the United States beat Belgium 87-74 on Thursday night to book a spot in the Olympic quarterfinals.
A’ja Wilson had 23 points and 13 rebounds for the United States, which has won 57 straight games since the 1992 Barcelona tournament.
It was one of the closest matches in their historic run of seven consecutive gold medals.
They have only had three games with single-digit wins.
The U.S. (2-0) faced a fervent Belgian crowd that made up the majority of the 25,044 fans in attendance.
The arena is located about 30 minutes from the border.
The two teams met in February in Belgium in a pre-Olympic qualifying tournament, and the U.S. needed a Stewart tip-in just before the final buzzer to secure the victory.
On Thursday, Belgium again tested the U.S. team in a way that no other team has managed to do during their unprecedented Olympic run.
Stewart helped the U.S. build an early 13-point lead, but Belgium cut the deficit to eight by halftime and trailed 50-46 going into the third quarter.
2024 Paris Olympics
The U.S. led 60-53 going into the fourth quarter and scored eight of the first 10 points to extend its lead to 13. Antonia Delair tried to keep Belgium in the game with consecutive 3-pointers, but it wasn’t enough.
Emma Meesseman scored 24 points and Delair scored 16 for Belgium (0-2), who need to win their final match against Japan to have any chance of progressing to the knockout round. Julie Van Lew had 11 points.
The U.S. will finish pool play on Sunday against Germany, who also has a 2-0 record.
Elsewhere on Thursday, Germany and France advanced to the quarterfinals with wins over Japan and Nigeria, respectively, while Australia kept its final hopes alive with a win over Canada.
