Basketball in Africa

Actions resume Tuesday in Dakar and Thies, Senegal in the 20th African Nations Championship for Women after all the teams observed Monday as rest.

In Dakar venue for group-A teams, the top of the star-match of the group will be between group leader, Mali and third place team, Mozambique.

The Mozambican who lost to host Senegal Sunday night by 59-42 points their first lose since the championship commenced last Thursday will attempt to halt the unbeaten run of the Malian side who have displayed good basketball skill so far.

The Mozambique side will bank on sheer determination which almost saw them scaring the Senegalese side last Sunday before the latter falls back on experience and team-work for the maximum points, while the Malians who have shown a lot of promising so far will rely on the mixture of youthful and experience to further compound the woes of the Mozambicans whose last group game will be against Tunisia who seems to have rediscover themselves after suffering two quick defeats in the hands of Mali and Senegal.

The other group-A matches will see Tunisia gunning for a second win against Cote d’Ivoire in order to guarantee a quarter finals ticket after recording her first win against Madagascar Sunday, while home team Senegal who occupies the second spot in the group no thanks to the high scores recorded by Mali so far which shot them to the top of the group table take on hapless Madagascar at 20.30 hours.

In Thies the battle ground for group-B countries DR Congo and Kenya will take to the court at 14.30 hours.

This match looks interesting as the teams have only one win and two loses and a win either side could mean a quarter final berth and former WNBA most valuable player (MVP), Mwali Marie Mabika and her co-travellers from Congo knows this fact and will want to guide against an early exit from the championship, Kenya on the hand would want to give their largely home-base players the opportunity of making it to Dakar for the quarter finals and a further exposure.

Group-B leader, Angola will have her hands full when it filed out against rejuvenated Cameroon side at 17.00 hours.

While the Angolans will be searching for a win in order to consolidate on the top spot of the group’s table and extend her unbeaten run, Cameroon on their part would try to guide against any slip as both Kenya and DR Congo are waiting in the wings to pick a spot in the last eight.

The last match in Thies will be between back-to-life defending champions, Nigeria versus Cape Verde and one thing that will continue to reoccur in the mind of the coaches Kevin Cook, Scott Nnaji and Adewumi Aderemi tutored side is that there are no more minnows in this game any more especially the quarter finals defeat suffered by the Nigerian Men team in the hand of Cape Verde in Luanda, Angola during the men championship.

FIBA Afrique