South Sudan to represent Africa, Japan to represent Asia in Paris Olympic basketball field

MANILA, Philippines: It was a chant that Luol Deng waited years to lead. He stood along the side of the South Sudan locker room after their run in the World Cup was over, cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled the same thing, over and over.

“Where we goin’?” he shouted.
“Paris,” the players all responded.
Deng’s vision when he founded the national team about a decade ago was to use basketball as a beacon of hope for his homeland. And his vision never seemed more real than on Saturday.
A struggling country just 12 years removed from gaining its independence — making it the youngest nation in the world — is headed to the Paris Olympics as the automatic qualifier from Africa. Carlik Jones finished with 26 points, 15 assists and seven rebounds, and South Sudan rolled past Angola 101-78 on Saturday in the final game of the World Cup for both teams.

The win, combined with Egypt’s 88-86 loss to New Zealand in a game that went final about a half hour later, clinched the Olympic berth for South Sudan as the highest-ranked African team in the tournament. And later Saturday, Japan joined the Olympic field as the highest-ranked World Cup team from Asia — clinching that spot by holding on for an 80-71 win over Cape Verde.
“This team is a beam of light, like I keep on saying,” South Sudan coach Royal Ivey said. “We’re bringing unity, camaraderie, love and friendship to this country. This country’s only been independent for 12 years. To do this, for Luol Deng to put this together, this is incredible. This is incredible.”
Marial Shayok scored 18, Nuni Omot — the reigning MVP of the NBA-backed Basketball Africa League — scored 17 and Wenyen Gabriel added 15 for South Sudan (3-2).
Childe Dundao led Angola (1-4) with 21 points.
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