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 tournament in December in Dakar.
The team led by Tarek Abouzeid humiliated Kenya Ports Authority (KPA), reigning champions of the zone, with a score of 104 to 63, to clinch their ticket to the African competition.
It didn’t take long for Al Ahly SC to show their intentions by leading 20-0, humiliating the reigning African silver medalists who were unable to stop the Egyptians in transition and struggled to use their possessions, chaining ball losses.
Alima Doumbia saved the day for KPA by opening the score 3.35 minutes from time for a 20-2, but the sorry spectacle continued for the Kenyans who found themselves trailing 28-4, Hilda Indasi scoring the Another basket at the end of the match.
The frustration of the KPA players was palpable in the second quarter, as they were still trailing 35-14 four minutes into the second period. Nadine Mohamed and Raneem Elgedawy did most of the work with 10 and 8 points at this stage of the match. KPA put together its 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, further doubling their advantage to 75-37. The Dockers coached by Antony Ojukwu had no chance of coming back despite a third quarter marked by a score of 22 all. The last quarter was marked by a 34-18 which sealed the victory for Abouzeid’s protégés.
The turning point of the match: Against this Al Ahly SC team, the 11 points scored on turnovers and the 7 points scored on quick attacks in the first quarter are a hole that very few teams from Zone 5 have been able to fill , just like the 28-4 at the start of the match.
Heroines of the match: Credit must be given to Al Ahly’s transition defense, who locked down KPA from the start of the match. On the offensive side, Nadine Mohamed and Raheem Elgedawy led the way with 19 and 16 points respectively.
The numbers don’t lie: A 67.5% success rate in the racket for the Egyptian team, compared to 42.55% for the reigning African silver medalists, made a huge difference. Abouzeid’s protégés also punished KPA’s 18 ball losses, scoring 21 points against 9 for 14 ball losses. The depth of Al Ahly’s squad was also highlighted, with its bench contributing 44 to KPA’s 18.
Conclusion : Al Ahly SC will be in Dakar, Senegal, to try to follow in the footsteps of their compatriots Alexandria Sporting, who won the last two African titles.
FIBA
