BEIRA (FIBA U16 Women’s African Championship 2017) – Egypt sealed their second straight win after beating Angola 56-43 on Monday at the ongoing FIBA U16 Women’s African Championship in Beira, Mozambique.

The first quarter was close with Elisa Pires’ side trailing by just two points 11-13 but Egypt extended their lead to 36-19 at the Half-Time break much to the Angolans’ frustration.

Angola failed to stop Egypt’s lethal guard Habiba Elgizawy who was scoring for fun in the paint and indeed eventually amassed a game high 22 points, picked five rebounds and made three assists.

Many basketball enthusiasts believe that third quarter performances go a long way in determining the winner of the game and indeed when Angola scorer 14 points and limited Egypt to just eight, the panic buttons were activated in the Egyptian camp.

Egypt head coach Hamed Mohamed was on his feet and made it very clear to his players that losing was not an option on this very day.

The North Africans held on to record their second win out of three games and that leaves them with one foot into the Semi-Finals.

Jana Abdulah sunk 16 points for Egypt while Conceicao Caetano scored 15 points but they were not enough to help Angola win.  

Meanwhile, reigning champions Mali posted the highest score at the tournament so far when they blew out debutants Zimbabwe 112-22 to improve their win ratio to 2-0. 

Mali made their intentions known as early as the first quarter when they led 23-7 but the second and third quarters 62-10 and 85-19 respectively were enough to reflect the fate of Zimbabwe who are only making their first appearance at the tournament.

Zimbabwe find themselves between a rock and a hard place as this is their third loss out of three games and face an early exit if they do not win their last game against Angola on Tuesday. 

The top four teams from the round-robin stage will make it to the Semi-Finals with the two Finalists qualifying for the FIBA U17 Women's World Cup in Minsk, Belarus. 

FIBA