In their first-ever Olympic basketball game, South Sudan men’s basketball team defeated Puerto Rico 90-79.
This has been praised as an amazing accomplishment for the world’s youngest nation.
The ‘Bright Stars’ journey to their first Olympic Games is storybook stuff.
The world’s newest nation, having only gained independence in 2011, the Bright Stars were ranked 62nd in the world entering last year’s FIBA World Cup but punched their ticket to Paris as Africa’s top-performing team.
And now they’re officially in the win column.
Star Carlik Jones led five players in double-figures with 19 points as the South Sudanese caught fire down the stretch to turn a nip-and-tuck game into a relatively stress-free finish.
“I think it means the world,” Jones said.
“It just lets them know that anything’s possible, as long as you just keep working hard and battle adversity. I hope we put a lot of smiles on a lot of people’s faces.”
Puerto Rico got off to a sizzling start, with New Orleans Pelicans guard Jose Alvarado erupting for 19 points in the first half.
But Alvarado went down with an ankle injury just before the break, and while he returned early in the third quarter, his team struggled to recapture its rhythm.
South Sudan held Puerto Rico to just 25 points in the second half, using its considerable frontcourt length to make life difficult on Puerto Rico’s other lead guard, Tremont Waters, who went 6-for-19 from the field.
South Sudan also had an 18-10 advantage on the offensive glass, helping to overcome a so-so shooting performance from the field.
“It means everything,” Wenyen Gabriel said. “It’s a unifying moment. We’re all united through basketball right now and it’s proof of what sport can do for a country.”
Group C figures to run through the U.S. and Serbia, but this win gives South Sudan a puncher’s chance of pulling an upset and sneaking through to the knockout round.
It will face Team USA on Wednesday, July 31, in a rematch of a wildly entertaining exhibition in London earlier in July.
Puerto Rico, meanwhile, will look to rebound against Serbia also on Wednesday.
By NBC Olympics
