Angola shows the world on Sunday, the first day of the Athens Olympic men's basketball matches, that Africans can play basketball well though they lost to the defending bronze medalists Lithuania 78-73.

The match was close and the Angolans squandered big margin lead of 28-14 in the first period and ended the halftime 32-28. But that was enough to prove the African champions' ability as they have given one of the world strongest teams, the European champions last year, a serious challenge.

"We really wanted to come here to compete in the Olympics and show the world what African basketball can achieve and prove that we are the African champions," Joaquim Gomes said after the game.

The forward added, " I thank our performance in the tournament against Lithuania made us quite optimistic about the upcoming games. We don't want to come back to Angola without winning a single game."

Lutonda, Angola's point guard, said, "My teammates helped me a lot by giving me open space to shoot. I tried to do my best in order to give our opponents the message that Angola should not be underestimated, because we can create many surprises."

Angola will face Australia on Tuesday in their second group game.