The clash between Mali and Côte d’Ivoire was never going to be ordinary. In African sport, whether on the football pitch or the basketball court, these two nations meet with history at their backs and pride on the line.
Last Updated on
August 22, 2025
As Malian center Oumar Ballo put it, “Mali and Côte d’Ivoire, it’s going to be a tough game. Whether it’s in soccer, or in anything, it’s a big rivalry! We knew that, and we came and we had the job done.”
For long stretches, though, it seemed Côte d’Ivoire would have the final word. They stormed ahead with the confidence of a team chasing its first continental crown in four decades. Matt Costello punished Mali inside and out, Solo Diabaté pushed the tempo with his trademark flair, and their supporting cast spread the floor. By halftime, the Ivorians looked comfortable, and by the third quarter, their lead stretched to 57-42. Mali looked buried.
But this was a night that refused to follow the script.
Aliou Diarra lit the spark. Towering, relentless, he hammered the paint for 35 points and 16 rebounds, scoring with an efficiency that seemed unreal—13 makes on 15 attempts. Each basket and each rebound were a testament that Mali’s fight was far from over. Around him, teammates began to stir.
The comeback began with defense. Stops, steals, rebounds—little victories that grew into momentum. A 12-0 run silenced Ivorian cheers and turned the crowd in Luanda into a wave of Malian belief.
Mahamane Coulibaly found his range, hitting threes and attacking the rim on his way to 24 points.
“After half-time, we had to come back strong,” Ballo said. “We knew we had enough to get the job done.”
By the time Diarra muscled his way to a basket that tied the game at 90 in the dying seconds, the tide had turned. The Ivorians, once so fluid, now looked brittle.
Their coach, Miguel Angel Hoyo Ramos, knew Cote d’Ivoire was outplayed.
“They dominated the rebound. They played more physically than us… We played a great first half and the game changed in the second half.”
Overtime arrived, and with it, Mali’s chance to etch history.
Siriman Kanoute, who had battled frustration all night with seven turnovers, suddenly found courage in the spotlight. First came an acrobatic layup over Costello that seemed plucked from a circus act. Then, as Coulibaly converted a three-point play, Kanoute rose from the arc and buried a dagger three. Mali’s bench erupted. Their seven-point lead felt like destiny.
“In overtime, we just told ourselves to stay poised,” Ballo revealed later. “We’ve been there before. We’ve been playing together for a long time, so we knew if we stayed poised, we were going to come on top.”
The statistics told their own story. Mali, woeful from deep in the first half, found their rhythm and ended with 15 triples. They out-rebounded Côte d’Ivoire 58-44, dominating the second-chance points that broke their opponent’s resolve.
“We worked on that pick-and-roll defense and they had no answer for it,” Ballo added. “We’re young, but we’re starving! We know how to play basketball, and we’re coming for everything. To the fans, keep supporting us.”
When the final buzzer echoed through the arena, the scoreboard blazed with history: Mali 102, Côte d’Ivoire 96. Players collapsed in joy, their celebration not just for a single victory but for decades of struggle, youth development, and belief that one day their time would come. For the first time since 1999, Mali had reached the semifinals of AfroBasket.
What began as despair had turned into triumph. What looked like another chapter in Ivorian dominance became the greatest night in Malian basketball in a generation.
And with Diarra towering at the center and a young, fearless core around him, this run feels less like a miracle and more like the start of something larger.
[Photography/Imagery : Courtesy of FIBA]
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