The 2023 Basketball World Cup kicked off this Friday, with the first African country in Group A taking the stage. Facing Italy, Angola suffered a defeat with a score of 81-67.
Initially trailing in the first quarter (17-23), the Angolan team picked up their pace during the second quarter, narrowing the gap to 23-20. The third quarter was tightly contested, with Italians barely edging out a win (18-17). However, in the final quarter of the match, the Angolan team completely collapsed, resulting in a 20-10 defeat. As a result, the match concluded with Italy securing a logical victory at a score of 81-67.
With a shooting percentage of 34.4% (23/65) and a three-point shooting percentage of 13.3% (4/30), Angola will need to be more accurate in their upcoming games to avoid exiting the competition in the group stages. Their next two matches will be against the Dominican Republic and the Philippines.
In the other match played early in the World Cup, Australia defeated Finland 98-72 and claimed the lead in Group E. A strong start for the Australians, who will face challenging matches against Japan and Germany in the subsequent stages of the competition.
