CAIRO (Egypt) - Hosts Egypt sealed their group stage campaign with a win over Kenya to remain unbeaten heading into Saturday's final, while South Sudan overcame Burundi for their second win in the Women's AfroBasket Zone Five qualifiers.
The day's action paves the way for Saturday's final and third-place play-offs, with the hosts taking on Uganda while Kenya face South Sudan for the final podium spot.
Here's how the action unfolded on day five.
Adut, Washington power South Sudan to second win
Alberto Carlos' South Sudan bounced back from their defeat to Uganda with a dominant 77-46 win over winless Burundi to level the group stage at 2-2.
The win is the team's third since making their debut in the Zone Five competition in 2021.
Team captain and former WNBA player Adut Bulgak and Delicia Washington, making her debut for the team, led the onslaught with double-doubles to lead the team 16-10, 25-14, 23-13 and 13-9 in the quarters.
Adut scored 15 points and added 13 rebounds, while Washington had 11 points and 12 assists to come within two rebounds of a triple-double.
"I am happy that we finished third in the group. We achieved something new for the team with two wins in the same tournament. It is also the first time we have won every single quarter in a game. We controlled the rebounds, we took care of the ball, we had less turnovers than in the other games and all the players got some minutes. I am happy with this win," coach Carlos told FIBA.basketball.
For her part, Ines Nezerwa, arguably Burundi's most experienced player in the competition, says her team learned valuable lessons that will help them prepare for the upcoming championships.
"Coming in I knew this was not going to be an easy tournament. We came trying to learn in each game and the message from myself as the captain was to stay composed and it has been a great experience for everyone. Basketball gives back what you invest and from this performance there's a lot of positives to pick and continue investing in to grow Burundi basketball," Nezerwa said.
Second-half brilliance lifts Egypt past resilient Kenya
After a tight first two quarters (20-19, 15-13), hosts Egypt went into the locker room with a slight advantage over Kenya, who were chasing a second win.
However, the defending champions came out guns blazing in the second half, going on a 13-4 run in the first five minutes of the third to run out 84-62 winners.
Nadine Mohamed and Farida Abdelnabi led the onslaught for Amr Elmaraghy's side, scoring 27 and 16 points respectively, with the former completing a double-double with 10 rebounds.
Kenya looked ready to cause an upset as Victoria Reynolds and Mercy Wanyama combined for 37 points as the East Africans dominated the paint 38-22.
However, the hosts made sure to break Kenya's momentum, shooting 15 of 35 from the floor compared to 3 of 15, with threes proving to be the difference maker for the North Africans.
"We were ready for this game, but I think some players were thinking about the final," assistant coach Aliaa Mahmoud admitted. "We tried to balance the rotation so that the players would be rested for Saturday's game and I am happy that it worked out in the end."
For her part, Meral Abdelgawad said that poor defence and rebounding was their main downfall in the first half and that they had to take care of that in the second half to secure the win.
Meanwhile, coach George Mayienga was impressed with his side's performance despite being outscored 27-8 in bench points, with four of his players getting no minutes and two getting less than three.
"Our game was going well until the third quarter when we gave them room to shoot their threes. We knew they were going to take the game to us, but when they tried in the first half, we couldn't stop them. We let up a bit in the second half and allowed them to win," said Mayienga of Kenya's performance against the hosts.
FIBA