Mali beat Spain 82-73 for only their second Women's World Cup win

Mali beat Spain 82-73 in Group A of the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup on 5 September at Max-Schmeling-Halle in Berlin. It is only the second Women's World Cup win in Mali's history, after an overtime victory over Senegal in 2010, and the first against a European side.

Sika Kone scored 19 points and took 10 rebounds. Opta and FIBA both recorded it as her fifth consecutive World Cup double-double, a streak with no match in the official file since at least 1994. She now has six World Cup double-doubles in all, enough to enter the competition's top ten. Djeneba N'Diaye also scored 19. Kone was named TCL Player of the Game.

Spain led 34-32 at half-time after quarters of 17-19 and 17-13. Mali then scored 31 points in the third quarter to Spain's 19. After trailing 45-44, Mali ran 16-4 and, in one stretch, 12-2. They had shot 1 of 9 from three-point range before the break and then made 6 of 7 in the third. The fourth quarter finished 19-20. Spain never closed the gap.

A result the rankings did not price

Spain arrived in Berlin as last year's EuroBasket runner-up and had beaten host Germany by 30 points on opening night. Ranking tables put Spain well above Mali, which sat around 18th in the world and a dozen places below Spain depending on the list used. Those numbers did not survive the third quarter.

Mali shot 50 percent from the field to Spain's 42 percent. They led for 29 minutes and 1 second. Spain led for 9 minutes and 8 seconds. There were nine lead changes and one tie. Iyana Martin led Spain with 21 points. It was not enough once Mali's long-range shooting turned on.

Both teams sit 1-1 in the group. For Spain the loss turns the remaining group games into a repair job. For Mali it changes the meaning of the trip. A second career World Cup win, and a first against Europe, is the sort of result that funds the next cycle of girls' basketball in Bamako more honestly than a polite quarter-final exit.

Kone's streak is the statistical hook. Five straight double-doubles across World Cup games is a record of availability as much as talent. She kept collecting rebounds while the three-point shots finally dropped. That combination, not a single hot quarter, is what turned a 32-34 deficit into an 82-73 win that FIBA itself called one of the biggest upsets of the opening days.