Angola win 2025 AfroBasket Title with Home Court Triumph

Angola successfully hosted and secured another AfroBasket title, this time around on home court with a comfortable 70-43 win over first time finalists Mali inside the Pavilhao Multiusos de Luanda on Sunday night. The Angolans held Mali to just 43 points - the lowest total number of points in a final in thirty years.

The Malians had made history by qualifying for their first final where they faced an Angolan team that was making a return to the final for the first time in a decade. For Angola, they successfully avoided a repeat outcome of playing in a final game following their loss to Nigeria back in 2015 and also became the the only side in this edition to go unbeaten all through the tournament.

Childe Dundao brought his A-game as usual and sparked the Angolan effort, leading all scorers with 16 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals with teammate Selton Miguel also contributing 12 points, 2 rebounds and 2 steals in the win while Mali despite their underwhelming performance had their best performer in Siriman Kanoute who posted 14 points, 8 rebounds and supported by Aliou Diarra, who added 11 points and 5 rebounds.

In what was dubbed as a "David vs Goliath" matchup based on the two teams' pedigree on the continent, it was the host who got off to an early start when Eduardo Francisco finished off a fast break to register the first two points of the game. Aliou Diarra then responded for Mali to tie the game after both teams had gone on to fail to find the basket on both ends of the court with loads of turnovers in between. The keenly contested first quarter saw a combined 24 points shared between the two sides as the hosts edged it with 4 points, closing out at 14-10. Siiman Kanoute and the Diarras (Aliou and Mamadou) were keeping the Eagles in the tie even as Francisco, Goncalves and Miguel had all made points for Angola.

By the end of the second quarter when both teams had headed into the locker room for halftime break, 18 turnovers had been recorded with Mali bagging 11. The nerves of playing in their first-ever AfroBasket was  very visible as they were really struggling to make buckets and also take advantage of shots from the charity line. The hosts edged it by 8 points with Mali equalling their first quarter tally of 10 points as the halftime score stood at 32-20.

The Eagles of Mali knew that a big response was needed in the second half but the low scoring game kept on serving the neutrals missed shots, blocked shots and more turnovers. With 2:11 seconds left on the clock, only 21 points had been scored in the entire quarter with Angola securing two big threes from Dundao and Miguel out of the 14 points posted as against 7 points for Mali. By the end of the third quarter, the Palancas Negras could smell another title in 12 years as they were already up 20 points (51-31) with a massive 10 minutes left to play for.

With the home crowd roaring behind them, Angola continued to dominate in the final quarter as Mali struggled to find their rhythm. Despite showing slight improvement in ball control during the second half, the Eagles failed to win a single quarter in the game. The hosts maintained complete control, turning the contest into what felt like an exhibition midway through the fourth, highlighted by a powerful baseline dunk from Milton Valente. While Mali made a late push to cut the deficit, Angola remained unshaken, closing out the quarter 19–12 and sealing a commanding 27-point victory to lift the AfroBasket 2025 title.

Angola registered 22 from points off turnovers as against Mali's 12 points, the dominance continued on fast break points with 15 -11 and also dominated in the paint leading with 32 points to 20 points, the bench was also massive for the eventual winners as they contributed 30 points and with Mali's bench barely contributing 11 points.

Angola guard Childe Dundao was voted as the tournament's Most Valuable Player (MVP) and he told AfricaBasket exclusively after the win that winning the competition was a collective fight from everyone on the team.

“I'm very happy because we fought for this. The game was hard but we did great. So I'm very happy, I don't have words to describe this moment. We are warriors, a good generation because we won the last championship when we were young. This generation is here and we won today.”