MAPUTO, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Mozambique began Friday their qualifying campaign for 2019 FIBA World Cup to be held in China, beating Cote d'Ivoire 66-53 in a qualifier.

The visitors had the better of the quite even first half when they led 33-30.

But Mozambique used a 20-4 third quarter to take the lead for good.

"We are motivated with this victory. The other teams are physically much stronger than us, but we are playing at home with the support of our people," said Mozambique's Pio Matos, who led the home team with 15 points.

Cote d'Ivoire's Noe-Charles Abouo had the game-high 19 points.

The Qualifying tournaments started in November with five of the 16 teams to go to China. Enditem