Basketball in Africa

Cape Verde basketball team's small forward, Rodrigo Mascarenhas, said Thursday in Luanda that his team believed in beating Angola in the semi-finals of the ongoing African Championship (Aforbasket2007) for men, before their hope was shattered by a more experienced eight-time winner.

Speaking to Angop shortly after Cape Verde's 93-60 defeat, the player said he was satisfied for their response to the title defending Angola, stating that the score gap did not shake the squad's psychological structure.

"It is not a defeat with a win taste as we managed to beat Nigeria and dared to dream. Everything was going well, but the experience and power of organisation of Angolans beat us", deplored a dismayed Mascarenhas.

However, he said he and his playmates will do their best to beat Egypt Friday at Luanda's Cidadela Gymnasium in the game for the third place of Afrobasket2007 closing Saturday with Angola-Cameroon.

"We are satisfied, not for the defeat but for having done a good feat here. No one believed in our qualification, but now we will fight with the same determination for the third place", said the athlete.

# posted by afrbk : 15:09