DAKAR (Senegal) - Right after Mali's 66-64 win over Morocco on Sunday, team co-captain Ibrahim Djambo admitted that the mood within the team was one of bittersweetness.
It was Mali's first win in the three-day event, which means the West African return home with a 1-2 mark and realistic chances of securing one of Group A's three tickets for the 2025 AfroBasket to be held in Angola.
Mali opened their Group A campaign with a 72-64 loss to the DR Congo, before dropping another loss to South Sudan (85-60).
Djambo said that beating Morocco was a must in order to keep their team's AfroBasket hope alive.
"We are happy to take this win. It wasn't easy to play all three games even though we still regret [our performance] in our first game. The mood [in the locker room] is great. We are one step ahead of Morocco and we'll be ready for the next window."
Aliou Diarra recorded his second double-double in the qualifiers, finishing with 11 points and 10 rebounds, and Mamadou Diarra sparked Mali's offense with a team-high of 15 points.
Mali led by as many as 19 points in the third quarter, and, when things looked done and dusted, Morocco used an 11-0 scoring in the final five minutes of the game to cause some uncertainty in the outcome of the game.
Just like Diarra, Morocco's ace Mohamed Choua recorded his second double-double, finishing 19 points and 15 rebounds, but his effort wasn't enough to change the course of events for Labib El Hamrani's team.
Khalid Boukichou's lay-up cut the gap to 66-64 with two seconds remaining, but it came a little too late for a team that close their Group A campaign in Window 2 of the Qualifiers with a 0-3 but lots of hope for the next round where they will try to secure their first AfroBasket for the first time since finishing fourth in 2017.
"I am very proud of the way we played the last five minutes," Boukichou admitted, adding: "That's how we should have played the first 35 minutes. That says something about our naiveness. This is a new team. We don't know each other yet."
Djambo went on to explain that things could be better for Mali in the February window of the AfroBasket Qualifiers .
"We have to play as a team. I am happy that we finished with a win. We have a young group that has never played in a window like this for the AfroBasket. Now that we all have that experience, it will help us to build from now on. We'll be a better team in the next window."
Boukichou, meanwhile, insisted they can define their AfroBasket destiny. "Now, it's in our hands to be ready for the next window of the qualification," he said, adding that Mali won the game because "they were more aggressive than us. We should be more aggressive than them because they are more athletic than us."
"I really want to have a full experience of AfroBasket. I will fight until the last second," Boukichou pointed out.
FIBA