ZANZIBAR (Tanzania) – Egypt’s Al Ahly Sporting Club is the first team in the FIBA Zone 5 Women’s Basketball League Africa (WBLA) qualifiers to qualify for the December tournament in Dakar.
The team led by Tarek Abouzeid humiliated Kenya Ports Authority (KPA), the reigning champions of the zone, with a score of 104 to 63, to secure their ticket to the African competition.
It didn’t take long for Al Ahly SC to show their intentions by leading 20-0, embarrassing the reigning African silver medalists who couldn’t stop the Egyptians in transition and struggled to use their possessions, keeping the losing the ball.
Alima Doumbia saved the day for KPA by opening the scoring 3.35 minutes from time for 20-2, but the sad scene continued for the Kenyans who found themselves trailing 28-4, Hilda Indasi scored Another basket at the end of the game.
KPA players felt frustrated in the second quarter, as they still trailed 35-14 four minutes into the second quarter. Nadine Mohamed and Raneem Elgedawy did most of the work with 10 and 8 points in this phase of the game. KPA put together the biggest scoring streak, scoring 10 points for a score of 45-26 at the end of the quarter, which ended with a score of 50-26.
Al Ahly continued their momentum after the locker room, with a 19-10 run in the first half of the third quarter to lead 69-36, doubling their advantage to 75-37. The Dockers coached by Antony Ojukwu had no chance to come back despite the third quarter marked by a score of 22 all. The last quarter was scored 34-18 which sealed the victory of Abouzeid’s supporters.
The turning point of the game: Against this Al Ahly SC team, the 11 points scored by turnovers and the 7 points scored by quick attacks in the first quarter is a hole that very few teams from Zone 5 have been able to fill, such as 28-4 to start. in the game.
Heroes of the game: Credit must be given to Al Ahly’s transition defense, which locked down KPA from the start of the match. On the offensive side, Nadine Mohamed and Raheem Elgedawy led the victory with their 19 and 16 points respectively.
The numbers don’t lie: A 67.5% racket success rate for the Egyptian team, compared to 42.55% for the reigning African silver medalists, made a big difference. Abouzeid’s men also punished KPA’s 18 turnovers, scoring 21 points against 9 for 14 turnovers. Also highlighted was the depth of Al Ahly’s squad, with its bench contributing 44 to KPA’s 18.
CONCLUSION : Al Ahly SC will go to Dakar, Senegal, to try to follow in the footsteps of their compatriots Alexandria Sporting, who won the last two African titles.
FIBA