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The island nation has a population of just under 600,000 and booked their ticket after beating Cote d’Ivoire 79-64 in Sunday night.
Cape Verde made history Sunday night by becoming the smallest nation to qualify for the Fiba Basketball World Cup.
The island nation has a population of just under 600,000 and booked their ticket after beating Cote d’Ivoire 79-64 in Sunday night.
Montenegro seemed to have shattered the record in China at the previous World Cup with a reported population of just over 620,000 at the time.
The previous record holder was Qatar, whose population was just under one million in 2006.
Cote d’Ivoire, who booked the first African slot to the world showpiece, have not shown any signs of stepping off the pedal despite going into the last three games already qualified.
It was a slow start for Cape Verde, who found themselves down by 10 points (24-14) after the first quarter.
But lead by Ivan Almeida, Betinho Gomes and Walter Tavarez, the islanders got back in the game, taking the second frame 28-06 to take a 12-point lead (42-30) into the halftime break.
Emmanuel Trovoada’s charges took full control in the third quarter, taking it 23-21 and the fourth 14-13 to clinch victory.
Almeida scored 20 points for Cape Verde while Gomes added 15.
Tavares contributed 13 points and five points.
Souleyman Diabate and Charles Abouo scored 12 and 10 points for Cote d’Ivoire in their second loss of the qualifiers.
The victory completed the puzzle for who takes the final slot as the best third-placed team in the two qualifying groups.
Angola, Egypt, South Sudan and Cote d’Ivoire are the other African sides going to the World Cup.
African teams qualified for Basketball World Cup
South Sudan
Cote d’Ivoire
Angola
Egypt
Cape Verde
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