Angola rally to open Qualifiers with narrow win over Guinea
Guinea were minutes away from beating Angola for the very first time in their history, but the West Africans will need to wait for the second round of the Qualifiers to try again.
MONASTIR (Tunisia) - Guinea were minutes away from beating Angola for the very first time in their history, but the West Africans will need to wait for the second round of the 2025 FIBA AfroBasket Qualifiers to try again.
Zeljko Zecevic’s team seemed set to cause the biggest upset in the AfroBasket Qualifiers so far as they led by as many as 15 points in the third quarter.
However, the rejuvenated Angolan side halted Guinea’s dream with an aggressive defensive plan when they least expected.
Jilson Bango terrorised Guinea’s defense with thunderous dunks while Abou Gakou hit a pair of three-pointers later in the fourth to seal Angola’s 76-70 win.
TURNING POINT: Guinea were over the moon when they hit a 61-46 lead early in the fourth, but in an unexpected turn of events, Angola embarked on 15-0 run while keeping Guinea scoreless for 4 minutes. And what looked like a certain win for Guinea turned out into an agonising defeat.
And when Gakou buried a three-point later in the fourth, it was game over for Guinea.
GAME HERO: He may have finished with a 3-for-12 shooting, but floor general Childe Dundao reminded everyone why he is one of Africa’s finest point guards.
Dundao disrupted Guinea’s offense with his aggressive defensive game, forced turn-overs, and dished out a game-high 9 assists to which he added 12 points to his account.
But the Petro de Luanda guard wasn’t the only one powering Angola to victory. Bango was a rebound shy of a double-double, finishing with 24 points and 9 rebounds.
STATS DON’T LIE: As much as coach Zecevic criticises some officiating decisions, the fact that his team turned the ball over 19 times, and finished with just 8 assists compared to Angola’s 19 tells a story of a team in urgent need of offensive adjustments.
And, keeping Shannon Evans on the floor for the entire 40 minutes seems to have made things easy for Angola to realise where the damage was coming from.
Evans finished with a game-high 26 points and added 3 assist. Cheick Sekou Conde backed Evans with 25 points and 7 rebounds.
BOTTOM LINE: When things looked done and dusted for Guinea, Angola showed a tremendous resilience to come up on top. It was a good sign of how this young Angola side continues to build its new identity.
WHAT THEY SAID: “I must congratulate the Angolan team for their resilience. They fought really hard.” - Guinea head coach Zeljko Zecevic.
”Certainly we need to make some adjustments, but, for now we are going to try to stick to our game plan.” - Anibal Moreira, Angola head coac.
FIBA