Nigeria defeats Mali 79-58, Will Play Senegal in Afrobasket 2019 final.

Nigeria booked their slot in the Final and a chance to defend their title when they defeated Mali 79-58 in a one-sided match that saw D'Tigress maintain their unbeaten run at the biennial competition bringing their win ratio to 4-0. 

Her big minutes were backed by good performances from captain Adaora Elonu, Evelyn Akhator and Atonye Nyingifa who added 13, 12 and 10 points for Nigeria. Akhator's 13 rebounds for a double double stood out tall as she dealt with the Malian duo of Meiya Tirera and Mariam Coulibaly to the core. 

Tirera and Coulibaly themselves scored 14 and 10 points respectively while Djeneba N'Diaye scored 11 points for Mali but the Nigerians were too strong for them and indeed they ended their dream of winning yet another title in Dakar as they did in 2007. 

Senegal survive Mozambique scare

Hosts Senegal overturned an 18 point deficit to overcome a strong Mozambique charge 60-57 to book their third straight Final at the FIBA Women's AfroBasket. 

Senegal trailed 26-8 midway the second quarter and under immense pressure found themselves between a rock and a hard place as everything they threw at the basket found its way off the mark contrastingly to what Mozambique converted on every other possession. 

A true test of Senegal's character that saw the fans drop their jaws at every turnover in absolute shock as their super stars showed signs of weakness in the face of their biggest test at home during this competition.

Senegal head coach Cheikh Sarr said in the post-match press conference that, "I had to shout out a little bit in the locker room at the half time break and bring the team together to play better defence and that helped us a lot."

A full court press strategy on defence and the high tension of the game, Senegal found themselves in foul trouble with their forwards Mame-Marie Sy-Diop and Maimouna Diarra registering four fouls each in the opening two minutes of the game meant that Sarr had to introduce his namesake Oumoul Khairy Sarr. 

She did the dirty work in the paint against an unstoppable Leia Dongue who ultimately posted a double double 18 points and 10 rebounds as well as Tamara Seda who picked an incredible 14 rebounds and scored 11 points. 

Senegal took their first lead in the game midway the last quarter 52-51 but in a game where the lead changed 12 times in the last five minutes does not even begin to describe the tension in the fully packed 15,000 seater Dakar Arena. 

In the end, the hosts won the war to qualify for the Final but the battle awaits them on Sunday as they seek a record 13th African trophy. 

Astou Traore as captain once again led from the front registering 16 points and grabing nine rebounds while Bintou Dieme and Sy-Diop added 10 and nine points in that order.

Fatou Babou Diagne continued on a shining run for a debutant recording nine rebounds and seven points to bring her average at the tournament to 11.3 rebounds and 9.3 points.

Draw for Africa's pre-qualifiers for the 2020 Olympic Games set in Dakar

DAKAR (Senegal) - Following the conclusion of Friday's FIBA Women's AfroBasket action, six teams have qualified for the continent pre-qualifiers of the 2020 Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

And as a result, FIBA Africa will host the six-nation pre-qualifiers draw on Saturday in the Senegalese capital of Dakar, ahead of the biennial championship final between Nigeria and Senegal.

Teams qualified include, reigning champions Nigeria, Senegal, Mali, Mozambique, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The African pre-qualifiers for the Tokyo games will take place from November 14-17 at a country yet to  be determined.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2D9wY3wsEw

And the teams that finish in the first two places in Africa will then advance to the 16-nation FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament (WOQT) where teams will be divided into four tournaments (groups) in February 2020. 

The top three teams from each of the three WOQTs will qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. 

The pre-qualifiers for the Tokyo Games is part of a major FIBA's new qualifying system, which also changes the way of qualification for the next FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup.

Both the reigning Olympic champions USA and hosts Japan will take part in the new pre-olympic qualifiers.

Timmyprox:
Senegal have more supporters I watch their game against Angola you need to see the way Senegal fans are cheering up the team
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Anyway Nigeria is not a walkover

mikkycoins:
Go Girls
It's high time we replicate our sports dominion globally and not just in Africa

ifeconwamama247:
Those girls are too good, but meeting Senegal in finals will be a tough game, their fans are something else.

femi4:
Substandard, they couldn't pull 100pts since the inception of this competition

femi4:
Substandard, they couldn't pull 100pts since the inception of this competition

MachadoPreto:
Our girls are too high for this tournament. Truth be said


This girls are professionals in forefronts of top leagues.

.it's a rape

slimthugchimee2:

They won their previous match 106 48

Besides this is female basketball, much point baskets are not to be expected