2023 Women’s Afrobasket : Cameroon Bows Out

The dream of clinching a first Women’s Afrobasket trophy for Cameroon will unfortunately not be a reality this year as they have been eliminated in the ongoing edition of the competition in Kigali-Rwanda.  The Basketball Lionesses of Cameroon were beaten by Senegal 77-80 in the quarterfinals match played yesterday August 2, 2023.
As expected, the game was a tough one. Cameroon qualified for the quarterfinals after toping group B, while the 11-time champions, Senegal, finished third in Group C and had to go through the “Qualification to Quarterfinal phase” against Egypt. Senegal then defeated Egypt in the game played on August 1, 2023 to sail to the quarterfinals. When Cameroon knew their opponents, they recognized it was going to be a tough match. Lionesses’ Marina Ewodo admitted this during the post-match press conference.
Effectively, Cameroon succumbed to the experience of Senegal but made their opponents work to get the win. The Cameroonians started on a good note, winning the first quarter 19-11. Senegal came back in the second quarter to win 18-13. The first half thus ended 32-29 in favour of Cameroon. During the second half, the Senegalese came in aggressively lining up the points with Cameroon running behind them. The Senegalese finally won the third quarter 28-20. Cameroon put in more efforts in the last quarter but the gab created in the third was huge. The Lionesses won the fourth quarter 25-23 but the final score 77-80 was in favour of the Senegalese. The slim three-point gab tells of the intensity of play. It was a bitte...