DAKAR (Senegal) - Côte d'Ivoire entered Sunday's game against Angola as one of the front-runners in Group F. However, it didn't take long for their status to turn into a nightmare.
Côte d'Ivoire had a short-lived lead early in the opening quarter.
However, the defending African champions turned their painful two-point loss to Senegal (84-82) less than 24 hours earlier into a 91-70 win against Côte d'Ivoire.
The Ivorians, who have played in the last two World Cups, hadn't lost by 21 points or more in almost a decade.
Their last loss by such a large margin occurred during the 2017 AfroBasket, when they lost 81–60 to the Democratic Republic of the Congo before exiting the competition with a 92–63 loss to Mali.
Recently highly rated, Côte d'Ivoire entered Sunday's game with an impressive 7–1 win–loss record. Angola, on the other hand, desperately needed to relaunch their campaign after narrow losses to Senegal, Egypt, and Mali.
Once Angola took the lead in the first quarter, they never trailed again, going on to lead by as many as 28 points. In the end, Angola held Côte d'Ivoire to their lowest score of the current campaign.
"They played better than us. It was a tough game for us. We couldn't keep up with their intensity. They played great defense. They forced us into 21 turnovers and got 21 offensive rebounds. They also took 32 more shots than us. That was the biggest difference between the two teams. "I hope we can learn from this game," said Côte d'Ivoire head coach Miguel Ramos.
Angola's intense and aggressive defense resulted in 13 steals.
Childe Dundao finished with a team-high 15 points. Five other Angolan players joined him in scoring in the double digits.
Angola improved their record to 6-3 while Côte d'Ivoire dropped to 7-2.
FIBA