MONROVIA (Liberia) – The Zone 3 qualifiers for the Women’s Basketball League Africa Zone 3 began on Tuesday, November 5 at the Samuel Kayan Doe Sports Complex, Paynesville, a suburb of Monrovia, Liberia.
The day began with the Ivory Coast runners-up, SOA, sweeping away the Liberian champions, Commissioners Basketball Club, 95-32 ; the Nigeria Customs gave a hard time to the champions of Benin, Énergie, 58-39while MFM shut down Invincible Eleven 112-42 in a show of supremacy from the Nigerian champions.
Here’s how things went.
SOA too strong to control
SOA left a good impression in its first international outing, leaving the Liberian champions, the Commissioners, grappling with a conundrum they were unable to resolve. The Ivorian team was only 5 points away from reaching the 100-point mark in a one-sided match.
They took control from the first to the last quarter, ensuring their domination with a score of 24-4, 27-9, 16-13 and 26-6.
Although the Commissioners tried to get back into the game in the third quarter by scoring 13 points to SOA’s 16, they were unable to change the score or threaten the visiting team’s players.
Three players contributed with 12 or more points, including Marianne Konate (18), Bintou Traore (15) and Ehounou Marina (12) for a convincing victory, while guard Korpo Sumo, who showed brilliance for his team , scored 10 points for the Commissioners.
Konaté, in a post-match interview with FIBA.basketball, said: “I am happy with this victory and I thank my teammates for their resilience and for keeping the pressure on during the match. I am happy with our performance and I’m looking forward to our next game. We’re ready to make the most of our chances in these playoffs.”
Nigeria Customs Energy management
The Nigerians started their campaign on a positive note after surviving an early scare from BBC Energy early in the first quarter, which ended 20-16 in their favour.
While BBC Energy took a 13-11 lead with 1:30 seconds remaining in the first quarter, the Customs took the lead to 14-13 with 1:27 seconds remaining in the first quarter. and have never stopped progressing.
Tobiloba Ogedengbe scored 11 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead the Customs game. Oyindamola Abdulazeez, Ebere Okeke and Jessica Oniabe added 9 points each to secure the victory.
BBC Energy’s Kondoh Aishatou scored 11 points for his team and Diakite Marama scored 9 points.
However, the effort was not enough to change the outcome of the match.
Ruthless MFM humiliates Invincible Eleven
No less than five MFM players produced a double-digit performance that routed Invincible Eleven’s unbeaten run in a 112-42 victory.
The Liberian champions entered the field for the last match of the day to the cheers of the fans who showed their excitement with each point scored, especially after having accommodated to the inequality of the score with a 40-7 in the first quarter. At the break, the score was 63-27.
Despite a tough fight early in the second half to limit MFM to 15-12 in the third quarter, their hopes of turning the offense into something to write home about were dashed as MFM closed out the final quarter. -time with a score of 34-13.
The two players Wandoo Hembem and Cynthia Gbihi scored 24 points, Idubamo Beggi 14 points, Favor Ojo 14 points and Ukamaka Oko 12 points, which gave them a big victory over Invincible Eleven.
Only Michele Nyanneh scored in double figures for the Liberian champions, with 18 points to her name.
The qualifiers have three teams in Group A, namely Invincible Eleven, MFM FBA while Group B has four, SOA, Commissioners, Nigeria Customs and Energie BBC.
FIBA
