ABIDJAN (Côte d’Ivoire) – Now that the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Africa Qualifiers have come to an end, it’s time to look back at some numbers that marked the qualifying campaign.
During these 15 months of competition, new records have been set.
Sixteen national teams competed for Africa’s five tickets to this year’s global tournament which will be held in Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines. These eventually returned to Angola, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Egypt and South Sudan.
Here are the numbers that stood out the most from the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Africa Zone Qualifiers:
6
Angola distributor Childe Dundao collected at least 6 balls twice, becoming the first African player in the history of the Africa Zone Qualifiers to achieve such a performance.
Childe Dundao, shortest player (1.67m) in the Qualifiers, was huge with Angola
11
When Nigeria, Tunisia and Senegal concluded the Qualifiers for the 2019 edition of the world event with a record of 10-2, we thought that no team could do better. However, South Sudan, new to the competition, proved that records were made to be broken by winning 11 of their 12 matches, establishing a new record (11-1).
20
On February 25, 2022, Senegal insider Youssou Ndoye set the new African Zone Qualifiers single-game rebounds record by taking 20 in a 75-57 win over Egypt.
21
Angola, in the process of rebuilding, are the only team from all FIBA Zones to have totaled more than 20 recoveries in a single Qualifying match. The Angolans recovered 21 against the Central African Republic in November 2021.
42
The record for most points scored in an Africa Zone Qualifiers game stood for 1,670 days.
On July 1, 2018, Nigerian shooter Jordan Nwora converted 5 of his 11 three-point shots, finishing with 36 points in the 93-53 win over Mali.
Amr Abdelhalim ‘Gendy’
However, on February 26, 2023, Egypt’s Amr Abdelhalim ‘Gendy’ outperformed Nwora by scoring 42 points in the 97-77 loss to South Sudan, thereby setting a new category record..
60.5
It is said that defense wins titles. At the end of their 12 games, Angola earned the right to take part in the FIBA Basketball World Cup for the 6th time in a row by limiting their opponents to an average of 60.5 points per game, with no team doing better in Africa, l australia being the only one in the world to have achieved this with 57.9 points conceded per game.
Angola are the only team in all Qualifiers to never concede more than 10 three-point shots in their 12 games.
63
One of the other reasons that explain the qualification of Angola is its ability to protect the racket by winning in particular on rebounds.
On February 24, 2023 against Uganda, the former continental champions grabbed a total of 63 rebounds, the most in a game in all of the Qualifiers played in any Zone. Angola also grabbed 34 offensive rebounds in that same game, the highest tally in Qualifiers history..
73
Cape Verde giant Walter Tavares grabbed more than 12 rebounds in five different games, more than any other player in Africa Qualifiers history. Converting 41 of his 56 shot attempts, the Real Madrid inside achieved the best success rate (73%) of the 309 players from all Zones who attempted at least 50 shots during the FIBA Basketball World Cup Qualifiers 2023.
Walter Tavares has been a constant threat on both sides of the pitch
78.6
Although lower than Nigeria’s 89.5 points in the 2019 Qualifiers, South Sudan’s average of 78.6 points was the best in the just-concluded edition of the Qualifiers. It is also interesting to note that South Sudan is the only team from all FIBA Zones to have won four games after being down at halftime.
FIBA
