Tavares, Cape Verde celebrate World Cup qualification finishing a historic run / News - Basketnews.com

Cape Verde became the smallest country to ever qualify for the FIBA World Cup by beating Ivory Coast behind Edy Tavares' 13 points.

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

As Cape Verde handed Cote d'Ivoire their second loss of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 African Qualifiers, they were finally able to celebrate qualifying for the World Cup for the first time ever in the history of their nation.

A country located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean with a population of 561,901, celebrates its first participation in the big event.

Cape Verde beat Ivory Coast 79-64 (14-24, 28-6, 23-21, 14-13), ending the group stage with a 6-4 record and following Angola in the competition to be held in the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan from August 25 to September 10.

Group leaders Ivory Coast led 24-14 in the first quarter, but Cape Verde made a partial score of 28-6 in the second period and never looked back.

Edy Tavares had 13 points (5/6 FGs, 3/3 FTs), five rebounds, and three assists. Ivan Almeida with 20 points and Betinho Gomes with 15 points supported Real Madrid's center.

Tavares has arguably been Cape Verde's best player through the Qualifiers averaging 15.0 points, 12.8 rebounds, and 2.7 blocks per game before their World Cup qualification-clinching win.

Aside from making history in that regard, Cape Verde is now also the smallest nation to ever qualify for a World Cup as well, beating the record that was previously set by Montenegro in World Cup 2019.

Montenegro seemed to have shattered the record in China with a reported population of just over 620,000 at the time.

Subscribe to BN+ and get access to exclusive content.