DAKAR (Senegal) – For its first participation, Friend’s Basketball Association (FBA) finished fifth in the 2024 Women’s Basketball League Africa (WBLA) against Rwanda Energy Group, who finished fourth last year, with a score of 55-47 after regulation time.
At the same time, seventh place went to the CNSS of the Democratic Republic of Congo which won a victory of 71-37 on the Senegalese Jeanne d’Arc, a team which received a last minute wild card for the competition, replacing Nigeria Customs.
REG unable to stop the FBA in flight
In the fifth place match, REG was forced to dig into their resources to overcome a 12-point deficit, tying the match at 47 to force overtime.
Lémou Benga’s players, however, took advantage of the extra five minutes to dominate the match, winning 8-0.
Sarah Berthé led the offensive charge for the Benga team with 14 points, while captain Grace Tolo was very solid defensively grabbing 13 rebounds, three more than Aminata Guindo, as the team surpassed the REG 57 to 44 (25-10 attack, defense).
The Ivorians of FBA dominated on all fronts in the match which saw 14 lead changes and seven times, leading 40-14 in the paint, 19-4 on second chance points, 15-2 on counterattacks. attacks and 21-6 on bench releases.
“We had a good tournament and we participated in all the matches, regardless of the opponent and their experience. We are incredibly proud of our performance here and we hope to do better in the future,” Berthé said.
CNSS is too strong for Joan of Arc
For its part, the CNSS of Koko Ade recovered from a slow start in the first quarter to increase the score in the second and last quarters (22-5, 16-1) and win the victory against the home team.
Marlène Ngobeleza and Bintou Drame scored 19 and 14 points respectively.
“Last year it was a relatively new and young team and we came to learn. Finishing ninth motivated us to work on our game and do better this year,” said Ngobeleza, who finished as the second highest scorer of the team, with an average of 7 points, and best provider of assists, with 2.3 points.
She continued: “Moving to seventh shows that if we work on our game, we can reach the final four of the next tournament and then work to get on the podium.”
FIBA
