U-18 Afrobasket Championship: J’Tigress beat Egypt, book semi- final ticket

Nigeria’s J’Tigress have qualified for the semi-finals of the 2024 Afrobasket U-18 Women’s Championship currently going on in Pretoria, South Africa.

In an explosive quarter-finals match, they defeated their Egyptian opponents 66-51 to qualify for the last four of the competition.

Nigeria won the first quarter 24-13 and maintained the lead as the teams went on the break with scores 37-23 for J’Tigress. Egypt’s struggle to get back into the game failed until the last quarter.

The game was a sensational comeback for Nigeria as this was their second game against Egypt within one week with the North Africans beating them in the opening game 72-60

Meanwhile in the other quarter final game played at the University of Pretoria, fellow West Africans, Mali sent Rwanda packing from the championship.

Mali won the first two quarters 19-11 and 25-15 respectively to go into half tine with 44-26 advantage.

They continued from where they stopped in the first half to dominate the second half, winning the third quarter 21-20 and the final quarter 21-11 to successfully progress to the semi-finals.

Rwanda’s Mama Sidiki Doumbia led the scores for Mali with 21 points while Oumou Koumare and Maimouna Traore added 16 and 14 points respectively.

Despite the loss, Brigitte Nibishaka still proved her worth, scoring 16 points while Vanessa Camara added 14 points.

The Nigerian girls will face Uganda in the second semi-final game on Friday while Cameroon and Mali will take on each other in the other game.

Rwanda still has to play a classification game for the 5th to 8th positions.

In the men’s category, Rwanda will be up against Cameroon in the quarter-finals today, Thursday, September 12.

Rwanda and Mali, the only undefeated teams in the group phase, topped Groups A and C, with a 3-0 mark each