Basketball in Africa

Surprised semi-finalist of the 24th FIBA Africa Championship for Men, Cape Verde today went down fighting to defending champion, Angola at a packed full Cidadela gymnasium, Luanda, Angola.

The coach Emmanuel Trovoada side who booked a semi-final ticket against the continent’s number-one ranked team, Angola having stopped Nigeria in the quarter-final fought to the blast of the referees’ whistle in a charged atmosphere which has the vociferous Angolan fans drumming and singing from the beginning of the match to the end.

Though the Cape Verdean lost by a 33 points margin of 93-60 points but gave their all in match they did not give the reigning championship an opportunity to make a mince meat of them just like in the group stage where they lost scandalously by a 56 points margin.

The Angola who will have a date against Cameroon in the grand finale on Saturday won in all four quarters (20-16; 19-16; 23-15 and 29-13) with Milton Barros netting 18 points, one rebound and one assist; the duo of Eduardo Minga and Joaquim Gomes added 15 points each while Miguel Lutonda contributed 12 points 3 rebounds and 2 assists.

Cape Verde centre Rodrigo Mascarenhas who play professional basketball with Angolan foremost team Deportivo De Agosto led his team with 16 points and 8 rebounds while Margques Houtman and Mario Correia added 15 and 10 points respectively.