FIBA Basketball

    Focus on Africa #4

    [by Kris SANTIAGO] - Once again, I am going to round-up the latest news from the African continent as well as the African basketball-diaspora around the world for all basketball enthusiasts here on fiba.basketball. News from the national leagues: After loosing the national championship-finals to Etoile du Sahel, Stade Nabeulin managed to win the Tunisian Cup ...

    [by Kris SANTIAGO] - Once again, I am going to round-up the latest news from the African continent as well as the African basketball-diaspora around the world for all basketball enthusiasts here on Fiba.com.

    News from the national leagues:

    After loosing the national championship-finals to Etoile du Sahel, Stade Nabeulin managed to win the Tunisian Cup the third time in a row in a close game against JS Kairouan.
    The 72-62 winner was more than deserved as the Nabeuliens played very much as a collective and their hard nosed defensive effort kept them always on distance to JSK through all of the game. It's the 11th cup-title for the 2008 national champions from the small city of Nabeul, who is known to produce top Tunisian talents each year.

    US Rail Thies and AS Douanes Dakar to clash in Senegalese championship-finals. Rail finished off DUC Dakar in the semis while Douanes had no trouble to pass by UGB St.Louis in the other tier.

    In Algeria, dominant GS Petroliers and ASPTT (both from Alger) are going to meet in the cup finals in Staoueli (25th of June) after Petroliers routed CRB Dar El-Beida 87-67 while ASPTT clinched its spot in the finals by beating WB Ain-Benian 91-79. It is probably going to be a one-sided affair in the final as Petroliers (formerly known as Mouloudia Club) is fielding almost only national-team players and won all of its games this and the past season.

    AS Sale and Ittihad Tanger are the finalists of the Moroccan basketball championship. It's not a new constellation as the same teams met in last year's tumultuous finals.
    Tanger made its way to the finals by trouncing FUS Rabat 53-48 in the second game of the semi-finals after already winning the first encounter 69-67. AS Sale thrashed Raja Casablanca twice (75-49 and 78-74) to secure their third participation in the finals. They lost 2007 to Moghreb Fes and 2008 to Tanger while Tanger, the current champion, is going to keep the title for another year.

    ABC is the new (old) champion! The Abidjan Basketball Club managed to win once more the Ivorian championship by beating Generation twice in the finals. Serge Toualy and his fellow players routed Generation 71-54 in Treichville after a 76-66 in the first meeting of the finalists. After a 42-48 loss to generation in the play-offs, it all looked like a wind of change breezing through Ivorian hoops as Zenith previously notched the Ivorian Cup against ABC. But ABC bounced back to return big from its struggles in the season to clinch the title.

    JKT and ABC from Tanzania confirmed their participation in the zone five basketball tournaments scheduled to take place in Kampala (Uganda) from July 27th until August 2nd.
    The hosts will have DMark, Warriors and Mogas Falcons while Rwanda sends Marine and Kenya registered KCB Lions and KPA for the event. Sudan is sending Bilpam Warriors and Somalia fields Heagem as well to involve almost all countries in the Zone V (Burundi is still missing).The top two teams will be heading towards the FIBA Club Championships later this year.

    African players in the NBA Draft:

    Here is a quick check on African players in the 2009 NBA-Draft (June, 25th in NY) and their chances of getting drafted (Draftexpress, NBADraft.net, Sporting News) and their current ranking according to the draft experts.

    Hasheem Thabeet, Tanzania, Center, Connecticut - 1st Round 3rd (Draftexpress), 1st R. 2nd (NBADraft.net),
    Christian Eyenga, DR of Congo, Guard, Joventut Badalona - 2nd R. 24th (DX), not ranked (NBADraft.net)
    Alade Aminu, Nigeria, Forward, Georgia Tech - 2nd R. 25th (DX), not ranked (NBADraft.net)
    Chinemelu Elonu, Nigeria, Forward, Texas A&M - not ranked
    Bamba Fall, Senegal, Center, SMU - not ranked
    Josh Akognon, Nigeria, Guard, Fullerton - not ranked
    Alfred Aboya, Cameroon, Center, UCLA - not ranked
    Ade Dagunduro, Nigeria, Guard, Nebraska - not ranked
    Rudy Mbemba, DR of Congo, Guard, Vanoli - not ranked
    Weyinmi Efejuku, Nigeria, Guard, Providence - not ranked
    Boubacar Coly, Senegal, Forward, Morgan State - not ranked
    Ronald Ogoke, Nigeria, Center, Paul Quinn College - not ranked
    Martin Kolikoli Ndunguru, Tanzania, Guard, Pazi - not ranked

    African players currently active overseas:

    Congolese DJ Mbenga won the NBA championship...after playing a total of 15.37 Minutes in the play-offs. Still, Mbenga deserves to be mentioned here as he is the only Congolese to win a NBA championship!



    Nigerian Ben Eze and Centreafricain Romain Sato won the Italian Championship en route against Armani Jeans Milano in a 4-0 series sweep.

    Malian Amara Sy and Ivorian Ali Traore are now heading to the French Pro A finals with ASVEL Villeurbanne to meet the big surprise from this year's championship EO Orleans.
    Orleans, who are having young French-Congolese Nobel Boungou Colo on the roster, are clearly the underdogs, but after beating Maleye N'doye's (Senegal) Le Mans in the semis, everything might be possible.

    Cameroonian tower Rouben Boumtje-Boumtje is in the German finals with Oldenburg but lost the first encounter 72-74 to Telekom Baskets Bonn. Oldenburg needs a win in Bonn to equalize the series and for still having a shot to make it to the Euroleague.

    Bayamon defeated Caguas 80-93 in the BSN in Puerto Rico. Nigerian duo of Olumide Oyedeji and Uka Agbai netted in 10 and 12 points for the Cowboys respectively, while Oyedeji had also team-high 10 rebounds for the 4th placed team. Nigerian-sharpshooter Ebi Ere caught a cold-day and clicked in only eight points and eight rebounds for Carolina in their 112-95 winner over Caguas a day before Bayamon met with the same team. Carolina is one spot behind Bayamon in the standings.

    News about the African Championships 2009:

    The 16 contenders for the title-race are known now.
    Countries with some potential (Sudan, Gabon and DR of Congo) failed to field a team (Sudan and Gabon) or experienced problems in registering their players (DRC), so we won't see players such as Stephane Lasme or the Sudanese talents that are currently active in the U.S.

    The Ivory Coast called up 17 players to its pre-selection; mainly players based in France, the U.S. and Northern Africa. Six guards, six forwards and five centers were included while important players such as Alain Koffi and Mohamed Kone decided against the Elephants and for France's national team instead.
    Still, players like Francis Koffi and Herve Lamizana are proud to represent the Ivory Coast this year.
    Serbian Miodrag Marjanovic will be supervising the first stage of the preparations slated for June 21st in Paris, before new head coach Randoald Dessarzin will be taking over the reign to lead the Elephants to Sacramento's summer league and then to the summer league in Lille before they will be finally touching down in Abidjan shortly ahead of the African Championships in Libya in August.

    Some news regarding the D'Tigers and an interview with Senegalese Boni N'Dong should be mentioned here as well.

    Hope you guys had fun reading all the news surrounding the continent. Check back in time for more!

    I'm out like choosing Europe over Africa.

    Join for an enhanced experience and custom features
    Social Media
    FIBA Partners
    Global Supplier
    © Copyright FIBA All rights reserved. No portion of FIBA.basketball may be duplicated, redistributed or manipulated in any form. By accessing FIBA.basketball pages, you agree to abide by FIBA.basketball terms and conditions