Basketball in Africa

ASA 75 AGOSTO 85
PREMIERRO De Agosto of Angola on Thursday night defended the Zone Six Africa Basketball men title in style after edging fellow countrymen ASA in a grueling final at National Sports Development Centre.

It was a match worthy watching as the two teams that have been trashing their opponents at the tournament finally came face-to-face in the finals of the regional competition and proved that their country was the best in the sport in Africa.

ASA started the game on a fast note and in most cases caught De Agosto guards Joacquim Gomez and Francis Jordao napping.

As a result of poor guarding, Agosto found themselves trailing by 6-11 in the opening eight minutes as ASA took advantage of the pace to punish their countrymen.
Agosto tried hard to penetrate the ASA defence in an effort to post the baskets and reduce the gap but all in vain.

ASA were up 27-16 in the first quarter.

In the second quarter Agosto started staging attacks with their forwards Miguel Lutunda and Simao Joao trying to get three pointers but the ASA guards Oliviera Christovao and Goncalves Francisco stood firm.

But as the second quarter progressed, ASA ran out of steam and allowed Agosto forwards Felizardo Ambrosio and Olympio Cipriano to start controlling the proceedings and post the baskets.

This was the turning point for Agosto who never looked back after taking the lead.

By half time, Agosto were leading by a point (41- 40).
The third quarter was also full of action as both teams continued to search for baskets but Agosto held on and had by this time grown in confidence.

Agosto clang on to the slender lead to ensure they were up 52-49 at the end of the third quarter.

Agosto coach Luis Magalhaos rested Adilson Baza and introduced Armendo Costa to ensure the back was safe and his side opened up a 10-point to win the match by 85-75.

Agosto will now represent Zone Six at the World Cup qualifiers to be held in Tunisia next month.
The finals, which were scheduled to be played today, were brought forward to allow the Angolans catch the flight back to Luanda yesterday.

Other teams from Mozambique and Zimbabwe were playing their classification matches yesterday while Zambia’s representatives Heroes Play United and Hetro Bullets were kicked out from the tournament because the Zambia Basketball Association had no money to pay participation fees.