RIGA (Latvia) - Cameroon are warming up nicely for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Latvia, edging out their African rivals Egypt 78-74 in a preparation game played on Monday afternoon.
Cameroon won't go too far after their set of games, as they take on Brazil and Montenegro in Group B of the Riga OQT. Egypt will travel to Greece next week, searching for their spot in the Semi-Finals in a group with Greece and the Dominican Republic.
The story of the game
It was a close game, but Cameroon were in front of Egypt for nearly 36 minutes of the game, with their opponents taking a slim two-point lead for just under two minutes of action. However, Cameroon weren't able to break away, never taking their lead to more than 10 points.
While Egypt kept going inside and bothering Cameroon's bigs, the fact that Egypt played without their best guard in Ehab Amin was an open invitation for the Indomitable Lions to torture Egypt from outside the arc.
The three-point shooting made all the difference in this one, Cameroon protecting their 10-point lead from the start of the fourth throughout the final minutes before sealing the deal with a four-point advantage at the end.
The player of the game
Fabien Ateba is the team captain for Cameroon. He spent his entire career in France, mostly in lower division, and established himself as a solid three-point threat wherever he played.
7 threes for sharp shooter Fabien Ateba in 25 minutes!
Against Egypt, he was dialed in and actually outscored the entire team on the other end of the court. The 33-year-old knocked down 7-of-10 from beyond the arc, an astonishing percentage compared to 6-of-24 from the entire Egypt team from the same distance.
Ateba scored 23 points in 25 minutes of action and had a trusting partner in Roger Moute, author of 12 points with 5 rebounds in 19 minutes off the bench.
The stats of the game
Cameroon will enjoy the fact that they shot 13-of-31 from three-point range, while 24 assists could bring out a smile out of coach Alfred Aboya. The worrying part are the turnovers, a total of 18 of them happened on Monday.
Egypt meanwhile struggled shooting the ball, but dominated the rebounding department, with 16 offensive boards. The problem is that they only had a four-point advantage in second chance points, and really should've done more when they were +8 in offensive rebounds.
The takeaways from the game
Cameroon are not afraid to shoot the ball, and if they put something like this together against Brazil or Montenegro - or both - they could be in the Semi-Finals of the OQT in Latvia. From then on, reaching the Final or the Olympics doesn't sound like a crazy idea, does it?
Egypt introduced Omar El-Sheikh to the wider audience. He went 8-of-11 from the field to get 18 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists as their only player in double figures. However, it is hard to draw any conclusions on how good they really were since their game revolves so much around Amin who sat this one out, although listed in the boxscore.
FIBA