Angola defeat dents Nigeria FIBA World Cup qualification hopes

Nigeria’s hope of playing in the 2023 FIBA World Cup was dashed over the week following the team’s defeat against perennial rivals, Angola.

D’Tigers could not roar laud against host Angola as they fell 59-65 in their final game of Window 6. It ended 15-18, 14-

18, 9-19 and 21-10 in favour of Angola.

Meanwhile, the Island nation of Cape Verde has qualified for the 2023 FIBA Men’s Basketball World Cup finals.

Thanks to their 79-64 points win over Cote D’Ivoire on Sunday in Luanda, Angola, during the last game of the FIBA Men’s

Basketball World Cup Qualifiers.

They join Angola, Cote D’Ivoire, Egypt and South Sudan as Africa’s flag bearers at the World Cup to be cohosted by Japan, Indonesia and Philippines which tips off August 25th.

As Cape Verde handed Cote d’Ivoire their second loss of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 African Qualifiers, they were finally able to celebrate qualifying for the World Cup for the first time ever in the history of their nation.

Aside from making history in that regard, Cape Verde are now also the smallest nation to ever qualify for a World Cup as well, beating the record that was previously set by Montenegro in World Cup 2019.

Montenegro seemed to have shattered the record in China with a reported population of just over 620,000 at the time. The previous record holder was Qatar, whose population was just under 1 million in 2006.