Mali's exploit at 2023 FIBA U19 Women's Basketball World Cup points to abundant talent

 

BAMAKO (Mali) - Last July, Mali and Egypt flew out to Madrid, Spain to represent Africa at the 2023 FIBA U19 Women's Basketball World Cup.

Mali had an exceptional outing and when the tournament came to a close in a classification game against Japan at the Palacio de Desportes de la Comunidad Madrid, the West Africans, once again, defied all the odds to finish fifth.

Two years earlier, Mali reached the Semi-Finals where they fell to hosts Hungary 88-67. But, to put Mali's success into perspective it's worth noting that no other African team (women or men) has ever reached a World Cup Quarter-Finals.

 

In the 2023 global festival that had 16 participants in the Spanish capital, the impressive feat by Mali was commendable as the team wrote a significant chapter both in Africa and the World.

Their exploits showed that the continent has abundant talent and that if fully nurtured, can match any in the world. This can also point to one direction, that the country's youth programme is sound.

It also showed that with vision, hard work, dedication, preparations and focus by the Federations, the standard of the game can reach up to the skies.

Mali indeed showed that  future is bright and the growth of the game is in safe hands. Coach Diakite Sory and the country's basketball Federation's achievements made every African believe it is possible.

The inevitable question thus remain: What is it that Mali's youth basketball program is doing that can't be emulated by the rest of the continent?

Let's see where and how it started. Playing in Group A, the team's road to glory in the competition did not start well. They went down 88-65 to USA, who eventually went on to claim their 10th crown.

With that loss behind them, they built the much-needed confidence going forward and went on a roll. They hit Chinese Taipei 83-68 and posted a 73-66 victory over Germany.

They passed the round of 16 test against Australia deflating them 74-67. This result set them up against Canada in a Quarter-Finals clash. They went down 82-69.

The Malians continued their heroics in the classification round squeezing a narrow 56-53 win over Lithuania. And their Cinderella run in the championship did not end there.

They took on Japan in a match to determine position five. They posted a well taken 73-61 victory with star player Maimouna Haidara rounding up the scores with a lay up off a steal.

The team ode on the shoulders of forward Haidara, with her flamboyant hairstyle that matched her exploits on the court, center Mana Cisse and forward Sira Thienou.

Haidara was exceptional throughout the tournament. She inspired Mali with a performance of 24.6 points per game.

Playing in her second World Cup, she also set the record for most steals while posting only the third triple-double in the championship. she became the first player to reach double-digits in a game.

Haidara contributed a competition double-double of 15.9 points, 13.0 rebounds and handed out 3.1 assists. She was supported by Cisse with 10.6 points, 6.7 rebounds while Thienou registered 15.4 points, 5.7 rebounds ad 3 assists.

With all the attention deservedly on her high achieving team mate, Thienou was also instrumental in Mali's outstanding show. She backed up her colleague's leading display with strong stats.

Haidara made the All-Second Team that also included Jana Elalfy of Egypt,  Awa Fam of Spain, Syla Swords of Canada ad Dominka Paurova of Czech Republic.

Egypt, playing in Group D won two matches beating China 60-56 and Chinese Taipei 83-70 to finish 12th. But in Elalfy who dropped 38 points to joint fourth place with Liz Cambage, they produced a irresistible force.

FIBA