Basketball
Kone leads Mali celebrations after historic double-double
BERLIN (Germany) - There were emotional and triumphant scenes as the significance of Mali's stunning victory over Spain at the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2026 began to sink in.
Taking only their second ever win at the showpiece event, it came 16 years after their first. And also having lost to Spain back in 2010 by a margin of 44 points.
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Spain is one of the best teams, so to be able to beat them is amazing.
This time it was so very different. Kone became the first player in FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup history to accumulate five consecutive double-doubles as she led the way with 19 points and 10 boards in a famous 82-73 triumph.
"I mean, it's everything to us," said Kone after the final buzzer had sounded.
"To be able to win against Spain is everything. I mean, we are not surprised because we all are professional players. So, we just have to continue to believe in what Coach told us and stay with that."
"Spain is one of the best teams, so to be able to beat them is amazing. Also, we have good players too, but we just have to believe in it and try to stay with the game plan."
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N/AThe forward has played most of her career in Spain so admitted she was particularly proud with the outcome.
She stated "I mean, great. We know each other a little bit. We know what we do the best, what we don't do the best. So, we tried to take those things and it was great to play against them."
The win saw Mali bounce back from their narrow first day loss against Japan and now they are dreaming of more. "In yesterday's game [against Japan], we were up for most of the game, most of the time. We lost, we were a little bit down, but we tried to encourage each other to come back stronger.
"We said the competition is not done, so we have to keep believing in ourselves and keep going," insisted Kone.
Meanwhile Mali head coach Oumarou Sidiya was quick to highlight how Mali's amazing result was the outcome of years of hard work at younger levels.
"First, in the [FIBA] youth categories we excelled and now we're playing head-to-head with the biggest teams. It starts with the youth teams," he insisted. "These are the same girls who went through this training, who are now able to play at a high level. Many of them play in Europe, mainly in Spain, where they meet the best players in the world. So, their game has developed."
Now he is ready to continue the momentum in Game 3 against Germany - having been shocked with the way Spain were unable to make adjustments against his team. He revealed: "We have to admit that we were surprised by their reaction to our defense. We imposed a tough defense on them. Fortunately for us, they were never able to respond to that." "Germany is the home team from this World Cup, and we have to play this match as we played Brazil [in the Qualifying Tournament] and Japan for example, and also as we played Spain today. "So we stay mobilized, we respect everyone, and we're going to do our best. Germany play at home, so it's going to be a huge game for both teams. We're going to so what we have to do to beat this team," concluded the playcaller.
FIBA
