CAIRO (Egypt) - On the fourth day of the ongoing Women's AfroBasket Zone Five Qualifiers, Uganda booked their place in Saturday's final with a 66-30 win over Burundi, while hosts Egypt remained perfect after an 85-64 victory over South Sudan.
Both teams are now assured of a place in the top-two final, but with the East Africans enjoying their rest day on Friday, the North Africans have a date with Kenya in their final group game.
Here's the action from the Hassan Moustafa Sports Hall:
South Sudan stretch Egypt but fall short
Delicia Washington and Nyamuoch Teny got South Sudan off to a perfect start against the hosts and defending champions, leading 20-19 after the first stanza. The team were looking to get back to winning ways after dropping points against Uganda on Thursday.
But Raneem Elgedawy and Meral Abdelgawad took matters into their own hands, scoring 17 points in coach Amr Elmaraghy's side's 25-16 second-quarter comeback. A 24-12 third quarter buried any hopes of the Bright Starlets, who trailed by 20 points (68-48) going into the final period, which ended 17-16 in Egypt's favour.
The holders dominated the paint 38-20 and were 24-13 off turnovers. Their bench was also better, outscoring them 27-11, while South Sudan only led in second chance points, 14-10.
"We didn't have a good start but our bench brought back the energy and we were able to make a comeback. We executed better defensively and were able to win," said Nadine Mohamed. "We are focused on the game against Kenya and not thinking about the final yet. This is a good game to prepare for the final because they are a good team.
For her part, Teny, who scored 20 points in just under 36 minutes, said: "We fought to the end and that's what we will do until the end of the tournament," said Teny. "As we go into the last game against Burundi, we will continue to stay together and continue to represent our country because it means a lot to us."
Comeback win for Uganda to sail through
Uganda will play in Saturday's final, which will pit the top two teams in the five-team competition against each other in a round-robin format. Nicholas Natuhereza's side recovered from a slow start that saw them trailing 17-14 in the first quarter to completely shut out Burundi, who scored 13 points in the remainder of the match.
Jamila Nansikombi and Melissa Akullu, who had had a relatively quiet tournament, rose to the occasion to lead Uganda's charge with 14 and 12 points respectively. Paige Robinson added 10 points to the final tally.
"I don't think we were mentally ready after last night's big win and that explains our slow start. It is also natural to get a little complacent when playing against a team that is not generally considered to be as strong as we are, which I think was the case this afternoon. But I am happy that we did enough to win the game," coach Natuhereza told FIBA.basketball, adding that they will take the rest day seriously and prepare for the weekend.
The defeat leaves Burundi winless in three games and coach Arséne Mfuranzima is hopeful that the lessons learnt in the opening game will help them to perform better against South Sudan in their final game.
"We had a good start and stuck to our game plan in the first two quarters but nothing else worked as we scored only nine points while they scored 37 to win. Going into the final game, we are aware that they are a hustling team but we hope to use our experience to put up a better show," said coach Mfuranzima.
For her part, Ines Kanyamuneza admitted that the team lacked patience on the ball as they tried to play catch-up, which worked against them and made it difficult to stick to the game plan.
FIBA