MONASTIR (Tunisia) - Egypt and Angola on Thursday joined the Semi-Finals train of the ongoing FIBA U16 African Championship. They followed in the steps of Mali and Guinea that booked their places on Wednesday.

CHAD v ANGOLA

An 86-74 victory for Angola over Chad on Thursday was all the South African nation needed to earn  its third Semi-Finals berth in the history of the Championship.

Angola started the game inside the Mohamed Mzali Arena with a 21-14 lead in the first quarter but the second quarter commenced with Chad being the aggressor ending it at 22-19 to put Angola on the edge.

Angola Coach Jaime Covilha on resumption charged his wards to take back control of the game which they achieved as they regained the quarter at 27-19.

The last quarter was a battle of grit and tenacity for both sides as it ended 19-19 but already Angola had the damage to stop Chad from progressing.

Angola Captain Graciano N'Thonia scored a game-high 24 points while Garcia Kabemba added 18 points.

"Chad fought a brave battle against us but we prevailed at the end of the day. It wasn't an easy game and as we move into the Semi-Finals, we want to remain focused and be ready for for the task ahead," William Nzola Jose of Angola told FIBA.basketball after the game.

Mahamat Aka Ousmane led the floor for Chad with 23 points, 15 rebounds just as Aristide Allaramadji added 14 points.

RWANDA v EGYPT

Egypt survived a first quarter (22-20) scare from Rwanda to claim the last Semi-Finals spot in a game that ended 94-78.

The Pharaohs came out strong to take a 47-34 lead at the break.

Both sides left it a close call at the end of the third quarter as Rwanda held on to 24-21 score.

At the close of the final quarter, it was Egypt that had the upper hand at 26-20.

Omar Essam scored 18 points to lead Egypt while the pair of Annas Mohamed and Youssef Elhalawany added 10 points apiece.

Egypt guard Youssef Elhalawany summed up his team's victory as a collective determination to win.

"We won today because we played as a group. We played hard on defense and did our best on offence," he said.

Rwanda's Kennik Kabano was strong in the game and scored 21 points while Joseph Nshimiye added 17 points.

Kabano described the loss to Egypt as a sad one. "We're sad that we lost but it's not over for us as we hope to go into the classification games stronger and we thank our fans for keeping faith with us."

FIBA