ANG/GER – Angola makes history by beating Germany for the first time

KAYSERI (2010 FIBA World Championship) – Angola made history by beating Germany for the first time 92-88 in overtime as part of Group A action of the 2010 FIBA World Championship.

The Germans dominated the beginning of the first quarter, with a 15-8 lead after a 7-0 run, but Angola reacted with an 8-0 run to get up 16-15 and the first ten minutes finished tied at 19. Olimpio Cipriano led Angola with 8 points.

In the second quarter veteran Miguel Lutonda led Angola with 8 points, including a three pointer to recover the lead and finished the first half up 40-35.

Angola controlled most of the third quarter but the Germany run started in the final three minutes as reserves Tim Ohlbrecht and Heiko Schffartzik led a 9-4 rally to finish down 58-54.

Then in the final quarter Germany made a 8-0 run in the first two minutes to take a 62-58 lead. Angola never gave up and after being down by four, Felizardo Ambrosio banked a three pointer and they fouled Schffartzik, who only made one free throw. Then Olimpio Cipriano was fouled and made two free throws to tie it at 78 with 16 seconds left and after a miss by Schffartzik, the game went into overtime.

The African team used their defense, which sparked their fast offense and took control of the game early in the overtime period. Free throws by Olimpio Cipriano and Felizardo Ambrosio sealed the game for the Angolans.

Olimpio Cipriano netted 30 points, 22 of them in the second half, including 6 in the overtime period.

Angola is now closer to get into the next round for the first time with a 2-2 record as they will face Australia to finish the preliminary round on Thursday at 16:30. The Angolan team has never reached the next round of this tournament.

You can see the complete highlights of the game, as well as an interview with Angola's Joaquim Gomes at FIBATV.Com.

Quotes:

Luis Magalhaes (Head Coach, Angola): It was a very tough game we haven’t had a win against Germany so far. This win is a victory for Angola basketball. Our players did a good job, good defense. And the referees were fair.

Joaquim Gomes (Forward, Angola): We had a win tonight and we qualified for İstanbul. They were a little bit tired, we ran and we pushed to play faster and played fastbreaks. Tomorrow against Australia the game will be tough, we should keep our intensity, we have to fight more, we have to get rebounds to have fastbreaks to win.

Dirk Bauermann (Coach, Germany): I congratulate Angola. We have planned the same thing that we had planned so far. Our plan was keeping the distance close and in 4th quarter after Angola misses the shots we wanted to take the game under our control, make the shots and win the game. But we couldn’t achieve this today.

FIBA

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