In the long tradition of great teams humbled before they are tested, Team USA's women's basketball squad survived Italy by the narrowest of margins at the FIBA Women's World Cup in Germany, winning 55-52 in a game that revealed more about vulnerability than strength. The Americans advanced to the quarterfinals not through dominance but through fortune — a final Italian shot drifting wide of the rim — while their offensive machinery, including their brightest star, largely failed them. It is a familiar story in sport and in life: the scoreboard records the outcome, but the performance tells a d