Nigeria shines as Mali, Senegal and Cameroon tickets to quarter-finals – FIBA ​​Women’s AfroBasket 2021

YAOUNDE (Cameroon) – The first four quarter-finalists of the FIBA ​​Women’s AfroBasket 2021 were determined on Monday. The remaining eight teams play a qualifying round for the final eight.

The eleven-time FIBA ​​Women’s AfroBasket winner Senegal lost to a robust Egyptian team 78:63 on Monday and secured her place in the quarter-finals of the 2021 edition of the tournament in Yaounde.

Senegal, which last won the Women’s AfroBasket in 2015, started slightly with a 21-15 lead and increased that to 39-25 at the end of the second quarter.

The 25-year-old striker Yacine Diop picked up where she left her against Guinea and scored an unbelievable 19 points in the second game in a row, while Lena Niang also built on her performance with 19 points.

Yacine Diop

There was the semblance of a resurgence from Egypt in the third quarter ending it at 19:18, with Soraya Degheidy chipping 16 points and sinking four of her five attempts with two points.

But Senegal was too hot to deal with and cemented a 21:19 dominance in the final quarter to secure their second straight win while Egypt fell back to a 1-1.

Mali won show-off rights in the West African clash against Ivory Coast with a 76-63 dominance.

The intense game was pure basketball magic.

Mali had made a name for themselves with a comfortable 24-20 dominance, but Ivory Coast beat their West African counterparts 17:12 in the second quarter, only to reduce the point to 37:36 as both sides headed into the dressing rooms .

The story of back and forth was not over yet.

The 21-year-old striker Laetitia Sahie was in a class of her own with 24 points, eight rebounds and three assists, giving the Ivorians a 54-51 lead at the end of the third quarter.

But there should be more drama in the fourth quarter.

Go before Djeneba N’diaye.

The Malian guard was in fiery shape, scoring an incredible 12 points with 6 points from beyond the arch and racking up three rebounds.

Mariam Coulibaly backed the team’s cause with 6 points and 5 rebounds to ensure the 2007 champions advance to the eighth quarter-finals in a row.

In the third game of the day, hosts Cameroon rejected all threats by Cape Verde to secure a place in the last eight with a 71:40 win.

Rookie Merveille Nkoyock fired an unrivaled 17 points with an accuracy of 83.3 percent in the color.


Margueritte Effa scored 12 points with five rebounds while Marina assisted Ewodo with 11 points to ensure the 2015 finalists are clean.

Cameroon’s help came from the bench, which scored 30 points when the “lionesses” bounced off Cape Verde with 46:34.

In the eagerly awaited match between defending champions Nigeria and ex-champions Angola, the former was the last team to secure a place in the quarter-finals, and in a fascinating way.

The 2017 and 2019 champions broke all hopes for a surprise as the last Women’s AfroBasket’s MVP Ezinne Kalu scored 10 points at halftime when D’Tigress took the lead at 52:28.

When the game ended, she added two more points as Amy Okonkwo, Promise Amukamara, Adaora Elonu and Oderah Chidom were all double digits adding 40 points.

Angola’s shooting guard Italee Lucas was flawless on the charity line, converting all three attempts to get a game with the top 19 points.

Center Christina Matiquite scored 15 points with 7 defensive rebounds from Nadir Manuel which helped limit Nigeria’s dominance to 20 points.

Nigeria, Senegal, Mali and Cameroon are all pushing their way into the quarter-finals and will have to wait for Round 16 to end to know their opponents in the round of 16.

FIBA

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