LUANDA (Angola) - AfroBasket reigning champions Tunisia saw their 2025 campaign come to an abrupt end after an 87-54 loss to Cape Verde on Tuesday in Luanda.
It was Tunisia's third loss in four games in the Angolan capital. Before the Classification Round for the Quarterfinals, Tunisia lost Nigeria, Cameroon but they trounced Madagascar 81-60 in their final Group B game.
Cape Verde came back from the locker fired up, outscoring Tunisia 22-5 in the third quarter before settling for the 33-point victory.
By the time the islanders of Cape Verde reached a 60-38 lead in the third quarter, the game was literally over although Tunisia tried to put on a fight.
With the win, Cape Verde are back in the quarterfinals for the second consecutive time, having finished fourth four years ago in Kigali, Rwanda.
Substitutes Keven Gomes, Anderson Correia, Joel Almeida made their presence for Cape Verde, contributing 14 points apiece.
Jawhar Jawadi led Tunisia in scoring with 19 points.
TURNING POINT: The Cape Verdean islanders made their intentions clear early on.
Betinho Gomes opened the scoring with a long two-point jumper, then finished a drive to give his team a 4-0 lead.
Cape Verde's 10-0 scoring run sparked edge-to-edge dominance, giving them a 25-13 lead in the second quarter. Tunisia responded with a 6-0 run, but the three-time African champions never took the lead.
HEROES: In a relatively quiet day for Cape Verde's starters, it was their bench that got the job done, outscoring Tunisia's reserves 51-13.
Ivan Almeida ran the team's offense and dished out a game-high seven assists, contributing 11 points.
STATS DON'T LIE: Cape Verde improved their shooting in the final 20 minutes after missing all eleven of their three-point attempts in the first half.
They finished 7-for-22 from deep and defeated a team that had beaten them in the 2021 AfroBasket semifinals.
One stat that really stood out was Cape Verde's bench's contribution. They recorded one of the largest discrepancies (51-13) between bench performances in the tournament.
BOTTOM LINE: Cape Verde's complete domination over Tunisia left the FIBA AfroBasket vacant.
Tunisia will miss the last eight of the tournament for the first time since losing to Egypt 77–67 in the round of 16 in 2013.
It's the first time that an AfroBasket champions fails to advance to the quarterfinals in three decades.
FIBA