MONROVIA (Liberia) - The opening day of the Women's Basketball League Africa Zone 3 Qualifiers got underway on Tuesday, 5 November at Samuel Kayan Doe Sports Complex, in Paynesville on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia.
The day started with Cote d'Ivoire vice champions SOA taking a clean sweep Liberia's champions Commissioners Basketball club 95-32; Nigeria Customs proved a handful for Benin champions Energie 58-39 while MFM stopped Invincible Eleven 112-42 in a show of supremacy from the Nigeria champions.
This is how it went down at the arena.
SOA prove too hot to handle
SOA left a good impression in their very first international outing as they left Liberia champions Commissioners grappling with a way to solve the puzzle set before them. The Ivorian side were just 5 points shy off hitting the 100 mark in a game one-sided game.
They took control from the first to the last quarter ensuring dominance with a score line of 24-4, 27-9, 16-13 and 26-6.
Though, Commissioners made a spirited attempt to fight their way back into the game in the third quarter when they rallied 13 points against 16 for SOA, but the display didn't change the scores or prove a threat to the visitors.
Three players contributed 12 points or more, including Marianne Konate (18) Bintou Traore (15) and Ehounou Marina (12) for a convincing win while guard Korpo Sumo who showed flashes for her team registered 10 points for Commissioners.
Konate, in a post match chat with FIBA.basketball, said: "I feel happy for this victory and thank my teammates for their resilience and keeping the pressure in the game. I feel excited for our performance and look forward to our next game. We're ready to make best of our chances in this Qualifiers."
Nigeria Customs stay composed over Energie
The border women set off their campaign on a winning note after surviving an initial scare from Energie BBC at the start of the first quarter which ended 20-16 in their favour.
With Energie BBC taking an opening lead of 13-11 with 1:30 seconds, Customs made their efforts count when they took over the lead at 14-13 with 1:27 seconds on the clock and never looked back.
Tobiloba Ogedengbe was in double figures of 11 points and 10 rebounds to lead the floor for Customs. Oyindamola Abdulazeez, Ebere Okeke and Jessica Oniabe added 9 points apiece to ensure a win.
Energie BBC's Kondoh Aishatou scored 11 points to lead the floor for her team and Diakite Marama scored 9 points.
However, the effort was not enough to change the outcome of the game.
Merciless MFM humble Invincible Eleven
No less than five players of MFM put up double figures performance that made a mockery of the invincibility of Invincible Eleven in a 112-42 win.
The Liberia champions entered the court for the last game of the day to the cheers of supporters who showed their excitement with every point they scored especially after coming to terms with the lopsidedness of the with a 40-7 score in the first quarter. At the break, the score was at 63-27.
Despite showing some dogged fight at the start of the second half to restrict MFM to 15-12 in the third quarter, their hope of making the offensive something to cheer about was shattered as MFM ended the last quarter with 34-13 score.
The pair of Wandoo Hembem and Cynthia Gbihi had a game high of 24 points with Idubamo Beggi 14 points, Favour Ojo 14 points and Ukamaka Oko adding 12 for a comprehensive win over the Invincible Eleven.
Only Michele Nyanneh was in double figures for the Liberia champions with 18 points to her credit.
The Qualifiers has three teams in Group A, namely Invincible Eleven, MFM FBA while Group B has four teams comprising SOA, Commissioners, Nigeria Customs and Energie BBC.
FIBA