SAN CRISTOBAL de La Laguna, the Canary Islands—When Dawn Staley coached the USA women’s senior national basketball team to gold medal in the Women’s World Cup with a 73-56 victory over Australia here at Santiago Martin Arena, it was hard to miss a familiar figure sitting in the first row of stands overlooking her bench.

Gene Auriemma, who coached the USA to a pair of Olympic gold medals in women’s basketball in 2012 and 2016, flew over here to watch the changing of the guard. “He’s the best coach ever, both in college and internationally,’’ Staley said. ‘It was nice to see him here to support USA Basketball and his former UConn players. He had the ability to make great players play at a high level.’’

This team now officially belongs to Staley, one of Auriemma’s assistants on the 2016 Rio team, showed she is more than worthy of following in his footsteps after a signature victory over a team from down under. As soon as the horn sounded at the end of this highly competitive 16-team international tournament, she got a big bear hug from her 6-8 center Brittney Griner and plenty of love from her players. Then, after the presentation of medals, Captain and veteran point guard Sue Bird was invited to accept the first place Trophy from the Queen of Spain and then confetti filled the arena.

“Anytime you get a new coach, you really don’t have any idea what her demeanor is going to be,’’ Bird said. “There is a misconception about how easy it is to win these tournaments. A lot of us were tired coming off WNBA playoffs and these international teams are chomping at the bit to beat us. We had to play three straight games to win this. We had four to seven new bees on this team and some tough games. But Dawn was just so calm and confident and that really helped us.

“Tonight, she just told us, “You need to guard them, but they need to guard you, too.’’’

 Australia came into the game shooting 50 percent and looking every bit the powerhouse after it took down host Spain, 72-68, in a game where their 6-8 center Liz Cambage poured in 33 points and grabbed 15 rebounds. But the USA did what they had to do defensively, outscoring the Opals, 38-29, in the second half and limiting them to just 33 percent shooting for the game to qualify for a spot in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo against a team from down under that attempted to turn this match up into a physical playground game.

Shooting is becoming a lost art in women’s basketball.

But the USA has a core group of experienced international stars who know how to win in these major international events. “They have a lot of players who can score,’’ Australian national coach Sandy Brondello said. “Our goal was to make difficult for them to get shots and we held them to 35 percent shooting. But in the end, they just had too many players.’’

The Americans did what it had do defensively to survive, limiting Australia to 33 percent and taking away the Opals’ biggest weapon when powerful 6-8 center Brittney Griner—who missed the first two games of competition with an ankle injury—helped shut down Cambage, who finished with just seven points on 2- for- 10 shooting in a physical low post matchup. “BG did a good job stepping up,’’ Staley said. ”So we never had to go to Plan B.’’

“We just tried to do the same thing to her that she did to us,’’ Griner said. “It was a joint effort.’’

Griner, the Player of the Game, scored 15 points herself, shooting 6- for 13 and coming to life offensively in the second half after making just 1 for 7 shots in the first 20 minutes. Guard Diana Tarausi had 13 points for the U.S.A while the versatile 6-4 Breanna Stewart added 10 points and 8 rebounds. Bird, who finished with five assists, broke Staley’s career record for assists in international competition.

The 24-year old Stewart, who is the heir apparent to Tarausi as the most complete player in USA women’s basketball was a deserving choice for MVP of the tournament. She and Tarausi joined forward Emma Meesseman of Belgium, Cambage and Astou Ndour of Spain on the All Star five.

Staley has been an inspired choice to coach this team. The Naismith Hall of Fame guard who won Olympic gold medals in 1996, 2000 and 2004, is a players’ coach with WNBA experience who has earned the respect of both 36-year old guard Diana Taurasi and 38-year old point guard Sue Bird, the team’s two veteran influential icons with played with her on the 2004 team in Athens.

Staley is a cerebral teacher who won a national championship in 2016 at South Carolina and has the right temperament for the job. The two previous USA national teams were coach-oriented with Auriemma—a John Wooden like figure from UConn who has coached the Huskies to 10 NCAA titles—dominating the headlines with his sarcastic wit, demanding style while filling the rosters in 2012 and 2016 summer games with his former players.

Auriemma’s 2016 USA women’s Olympic team played beautiful basketball and had great chemistry in its run to the gold. Staley inherited just half that talent—six Olympians– for this tournament but she has given the players the freedom to be who they are in this environment.

Staley has gotten this transitional group that is playing without 2014 World Championship MVP Maya Moore and 6-6 Sylvia Fowles to play well together offensively for extended periods in the second halves of the medal round games after less than two weeks practice time and has camouflaged their weaknesses on defense after the first two games of Group play. “Our defense had an “Under Construction’ sign for a long while,’’ Staley said. “But tonight everything fell into place.’’

It was a special night for Tarausi and Bird, who played with Staley on the 2004 Olympic gold medal team in 2004 and now have four World Championship gold medals apiece. Bird now owns four gold medals in the World Championships, dating back to 2002. Tarausi has three, dating back to 2010.

The Americans have more superstars than any country in this tournament and Staley has brought out the best in her core rotation– Stewart, Griner, Tiny Charles, Elena Delle Donne, Jewell Loyd, Bird and Tarausi—especially considering the fact two potential starters–  Delle Donne, who is playing after suffering a bruised bone in her knee during the WNBA playoffs; and Bird, who played with a broken nose, were not 100 percent.

“Anybody could be sitting here,’’ Staley said. “It’s the players who win and we have great players who are committed and come back every year and that makes my job easier. I just let them do what they do.’’

BRONZE MEDAL: Belgium which played the USA in a losing effort the night before didn’t have enough to overcome the home crowd and home team, falling to Spain 67-60 in the Bronze Medal game. It was Belgium’s first ever FIBA Women’s World Cup Final Four appearance. For Spain this was their third medal in the last three years, getting Silver in 2014 and Bronze in 2010.

CONSOLATION GAMES: France won the 5th place consolation game with a very young and tall China team 81-67. Nigeria took Canada down to the final play of the game and fell short 73-72, It was a historical performance by Nigeria being the first African Women’s team to make the Bracket playoff round.

MVP: Breanna Stewart collected her third consecutive MVP (WNBA Regular Season, WNBA Playoffs) in a two month span with this award. Fellow USA star Diana Taurasi joined Stewart on the All-Tournament team with Spain’s Astou Ndor, Australia’s Liz Cambage and Belgium’s Emma Meesseman. The entire All-Star team except for Taurasi stands 6-4 or taller.