Basketball in Africa

The runners up of the LOP (League of Professionals) and Professional Basketball League team the Egoli Magic did South Africa proud on a recent tour of Angola this past week.

The team was not the original Egoli Magic team their fans have come to love after losing Joseph Mazibuko who left the team to persue other interests. The team added 6'9 center Cedrick (Not sure about his surname) who played college ball in the US and who sounds like an American too. Cedrick cracked the Mandeville backboard last week after throwing down a very strong dunk on a clearly weak structure. They also added Neo Mothiba, the South African National Team captain who currently plays for the Pretoria Heat and Quintin Denyssen who plays for Wits Alumni in the LOP.

Egoli Magic haven't played in over a month with the exception of a few scrimmages they organised prior to leaving for Angola last week. Their schedule was tough nonetheless. On Friday Egoli lost to Primeiro De Agosto 96-71. Not a bad result considering that this is the nucleus of the Angolan national team.

On Saturday the lost to Inter 72-65. This is a game that Egoli would have hoped to lose by only single digits or at least walk away with a W.

On Sunday Egoli finally managed to win a game after they beat the Under 20 National team 72-52. This is a game they should have won in my opinion. In their final game against Libolo they won 69-68.

So in retrospect they left Angola with a 33% win record against teams over 20 years of age or against people their own size. That's not bad for a South African team playing away from home. Overall they won 50% of their games if you include the under 20 team.

Well done to the Egoli Magic for what I and Egoli Management considers a very successful tour.

Until next time..... Tshepo Ditshego OUT!!!