The South Sudan basketball team has qualified for the FIBA Basketball World Cup for the first time in its first attempt after beating Senegal in Egypt on Friday.
The team coached by the former NBA star, Luol Deng defeated the Senegalese side by 83-75 at Al Ittihad Stadium in Alexandria, Egypt.
After the win against Senegal, the South Sudan team will finish as one of the top two teams in Group F, hence assuring of the spot at the event being held in Japan, the Philippines, and Indonesia later this year.
Senegal, however, was not a pushover. The two teams traded the lead for much of the game, with South Sudan ahead by only a single point at the end of the first quarter and again at half-time.
The West African team led by four after three quarters before being outscored by South Sudan 24–12 in the final quarter.
With the two-time NBA All-Star Luol Deng as interim coach and federation president, South Sudan now has a history-making World Cup appearance for the first time which they are looking forward to.
This year, the 2023 FIBA World Cup African Qualifiers may feature several first-time participants in this year’s World Cup. The first one of them has already been determined.
South Sudan captured an impressive number of wins in the African Qualifiers, out of the 10 games played so far, the squad has won 9 games and only lost to Senegal in August of last year.
Despite playing for other countries at the international FIBA games, Deng is a South Sudanese born in the city of Wau, Southern Sudan then.