OPQT's: Cameroon beat Tunisia to advance to the Semi-Finals
LAGOS (Nigeria) - A day after beating Guinea in their opener of the FIBA Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament campaign, Cameroon upset reigning African champions Tunisia 83-70 and advanced to the Semi-Finals.
LAGOS (Nigeria) - A day after beating Guinea in their opener of the FIBA Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament campaign, Cameroon upset reigning African champions Tunisia 83-70 and advanced to the Semi-Finals.
The victory means Cameroon are the winners of Group B and will take on the team that finishes second in Group A in the last four of the competition. Tunisia, meanwhile, will need to beat Guinea on Friday to keep their 2024 Olympics dream alive.
Although Tunisia did some good homework by forcing Fabien Ateba to miss all of his five field-goal attempts, they struggled to contain Philippe Jordan Bayehe who finished with 16 points and 13 rebounds.
Ateba, who finished with 27 points in Cameroon's 104-74 win against Guinea, made all his nine points from the free-throw line. Meanwhile playmaker Jeremiah Hill came up with another stellar performance of 19 points and 5 assists as Cameroon beat Tunisia for the first time in their last five meetings - a run stretching back to 2017.
Tunisia headed to the locker room with a 39-37 lead thanks to Omar Abada's 18 points, but Cameroon playcaller Alfred Aboya seemed to figure out out where this team's problem was. Ababa was subsequently limited to just four points in the second half.
It was certainly an evenly-matched encounter, but when Cameroon used a 6-0 run with three minutes left for a 76-66 lead, the Tunisians looked helpless and couldn't fight their way back.
FIBA