South Sudan chance to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics increased on Thursday after beating Philippines 87-68 in FIBA World Cup 2023. Ezra Acayan/Getty Images

The South Sudan national basketball team has beaten the Philippines 87 to 68 in the ongoing qualification for the 2024 Olympics in Paris, France.

At Manila, Carlik Jones nearly had a triple-double — 17 points, 14 assists and nine rebounds — as South Sudan (2-2) kept alive in the race to take the automatic Olympic qualifying berth from the African region.

Jordan Clarkson scored 24 for the Philippines (0-4).

The Bright Star team advanced in the first quarter, with a comfortable difference of 20 points.

In the second quarter, South Sudan continued to advance while maintaining a 20-point difference,

But in the third half, the Philippines managed to reduce the difference to 10 points, Bright Star rose up in the fourth quarter to restore the difference to 19 points.

South Sudan will play Angola on the 2nd of September to secure a place in the Olympic games in 2024 in France.

In other African team’s results to qualify for the Paris 2024, Egypt defeated Jordan 85-96.

While Ivory Coast lost to Lebanon 84-94, and Angola lost to China 76-84. And finally, Cape Verde lost 77-100 to Finland.

The Bright Stars is ranked the best-performing African team in the group stage.

The 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup is on to the second round, and the number of countries competing for a gold medal has been trimmed from 32 to 16.

But just because 16 countries have been eliminated from medal contention doesn’t mean their FIBA World Cup is over.

The countries that did not advance to the second round are playing games in the Classification Round to battle for a chance at qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

The Classification Games 17-32, with spots in the Paris 2024 Men’s Olympic Basketball Tournament and the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments 2024 up for grabs.

In Group B, South Sudan has a 1-2 record. Meanwhile, the Philippines belong to Group A and are yet to secure a win in the World Cup as they have gone 0-3.

South Sudan’s lone 89-69 win came against China and came their most recent 115-83 loss against Serbia, where the team shot 46.2%, including 39.4% from 3-point range.

However, they allowed their opponent to shoot 61.8%, including 53.1% from 3-point range.

The Philippines came off a tough loss against Italy with a score of 90-83. Against Italy, the team shot 46.2%, including 34.5% from 3-point range. Meanwhile, Italy shot 45.3%, including 41.5% from 3-point range.

Despite their record, South Sudan still has a chance to advance to the second round of the competition.

Carlik Jones leads the team in scoring with an average of 19.7 points per game, alongside their centre, Khaman Maluach.

Meanwhile, the Philippines will still be in the classification round for places 17-32 despite losing to Bright Stars.

This round establishes the final ranking of the FIBA World Cup 2023. The ranking will be the basis of the qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympics.