It surpassed the tournament’s previous record of 143 scored by Brazil in 1990, and the previous USA record of 119 at the competition.
“It was huge, it was huge,” A’ja Wilson, who finished with 20 points and eight assists, said afterwards, per USAB. “I think everyone scored and that’s the beauty of it.
“It comes from everyone, from one to 12. It involves all of us. And I think now because we have a complete team it feels a lot better as well and we’re starting to mesh, we’re starting to click. But this is huge, I don’t think I’ve ever been a part of a team that can score the basketball like this crazy and put up 145 points.”
Brionna Jones top-scored for USA with 24 points off of 12-14 shooting, with seven other players chipping in with double-digits points totals.
The big victory also included USA World Cup records for both field goals and assists — 62 field goals surpassing the previous record of 47 and 36 assists surpassing 32 — with the whole team shooting 66% from the field.
“I think when you look at us and just knowing how talented we are but also we just come together, we play together very, very well,” said Wilson.
“And we’ve only been together for maybe a week, a couple days. So, it speaks volumes to where this team is going. But right now I think we’re really in a good place.”
The USA have now won 26 straight World Cup games, equaling its streak between 1994 and 2006. They are still far behind the all-time record streak of consecutive victories of 56 set by the Soviet Union between 1959 and 1986.
The victory means the USA remain undefeated after their first four games of the competition, while Korea slip to 1-3.