Waly Coulibaly

Waly Coulibaly (born February 10, 1988) is a Malian basketball player who last played for The Patterson School after previously playing for Stade Malien of the Malian Basketball League while in High School.^[1][2] He is also a member of the Mali national basketball team.

Coulibaly has starred for Mali since breaking onto the international scene as a 16-year old. Coulibaly was the leading scorer at the along with Serge Ibaka at the 2006 FIBA Africa U-18 Championships, averaging 18.6 PPG.^[3] He scored a team-leading 26 points in a semifinal victory against Angola that earned Mali a berth at the FIBA Under-19 World Championship 2007.^[4] Although Mali struggled to a 15th place finish in this tournament after being placed in a group with the gold medal winning host country Serbia, eventual silver medalist United States, and China, Coulibaly was the tournament's fourth leading scorer with 19.6 PPG.^[5]

Coulibaly played in the 2007 FIBA Africa Championship as a 19-year old, but saw little action for the team.^[6] Two years later, however, Coulibaly had a breakout performance at the 2009 FIBA Africa Championship for quarterfinalist Mali, averaging 14.6 PPG on a Mali team that came within one point of advancing to the semifinals after losing 74-73 to Tunisia.^[7]

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