After the defeat against Poland on Tuesday, the African team had to beat the 2017 European champions on Wednesday to stay in the qualifying race, but if they had any illusions, they died right from the start of the game.
Slovenia, led by NBA 'star' Luka Doncic (Dallas Mavericks), started in a 'hellish' way and sentenced the match very early, with an initial 13-0 lead, which then extended to 33-9, the result with which the first period ended.
After 12:22 minutes played, the Slovenian lead was already 30 points (41-11), so the game quickly entered a 'cruising rhythm', with the Slovenians in constant rotation, but always maintaining a high level.
The European team went into the break winning 60-34, after a first half classified as a "joke" by the Angolan selector, the Spaniard José Claros Canals, very dissatisfied with what he saw: "You can't play like that".
In the third period, the Slovenian lead reached 48 points (90-42), ending with 46 (90-44), and, in the fourth, even exceeded half a hundred, reaching a maximum of 52 (101-49 and 103-51), settling at 'round' 50.
Doncic led the Slovenes, with 13 points, nine assists and six rebounds, in just 17:03 minutes, with seven other players scoring in the tens, led by 16 from Zoran Dragic, 13 from Vlatko Cancar and 12 from Luka Rupnik and Mike Tobey.
In the Angolan team, the highlights were Yanick Moreira's 15 points and six rebounds and Abou Gakou's nine points and six rebounds.
On Thursday, the Slovenians will decide the first place of the group with Poland, and both teams are already in the semi-finals, to measure forces with the two teams from Group A, consisting of Lithuania, Venezuela and South Korea.
The winners of the semi-finals will meet in the final, and only the winner will go on to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Angola was consecutively present in five Olympic Games, from 1992 to 2008, achieving its best classification, a 10th place, in its debut, in Barcelona 1992, where it 'shocked' the world, beating the Spanish hosts by 83-63.
In Catalonia, the national team had the honor of participating in the debut of the United States, more precisely of the 'Dream Team', probably the best basketball team in history, with whom they lost by 'honorable' 116-48, on July 26.
The Angolan team failed to win in 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008, and then failed to qualify: the African continent was represented by Tunisia and Nigeria in London 2012, and by the Nigerians in Rio 2016.
For Tokyo2020, Nigeria has already qualified again, having been the highest ranked African team at the 2019 World Cup, finishing in 17th place.
