MAPUTO (AfroBasket Women/FIBA World Championship for Women) - There is a team competing at AfroBasket Women 2013 that has come to be known as 'the fighters'.

And the accolade is not a result of self-proclamation because Cameroon is in the fact a team of fighters and they have raised eyebrows for their aggressive style of play as well ferocity to contest any ball possession.

They finished second in Group B of the Preliminary Round behind Angola after wins over Kenya, Mali, Cape Verde and Nigeria.

No other team in Mozambique's capital of Maputo - where the best African women's national teams are doing battle for the two qualifying places on offer to the FIBA World Championship for Women - has been defensively tougher than Cameroon.

They are not the tallest team in the tournament, but usually they dominate the paint.

In their five Group B games, only the gigantic Mali team - with their three towers Djene Diawara, Naignouma Coulibaly and Meiya Tirera - out-rebounded Cameroon (24-20), but the latter prevailed in a 67-64 win.

Scoring against Cameroon is a tough task, something reigning champions Angola experienced in their 48-44 victory although they had 31 turnovers.

Cameroon head coach Alain Zedong manages a selection of players that comes from as far as Senegal, Portugal, USA, Spain, France and with five that are home-based.

A former player himself,  Zedong currently works as a physical education teacher and runs a basketball club 'Ecole de Basket' in Douala, Cameroon.

Cameroon take on Cote d'Ivoire in the first of Friday's Quarter-Finals and will aim to reach their best classification possible in the tournament history, with a place for Turkey 2014 also clearly on their minds.

Priscilla Mbiandja, the team's playmaker, played for Cameroon when they fell short in the Quarter-Final against tournament hosts Mali two years ago.

When FIBA.com asked Mbiandja - who is based in Monroe, Louisiana, USA - what her team is capable of doing in Maputo, she said they are giving everything they have.

"As far as the competition goes, we are kind of family, we look after each other on and off the court," she said.

"When we step on court we know we have to watch each other’s back, between us it works like a family atmosphere.

"Hopefully we will be one of the top teams in this championship to represent Africa in Turkey."

Alina Nicole Senken plays professionally for Calvao, Vagos in Portugal and is one of the Cameroonians with USA college experience.

She played for Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee and last represented her country at AfroBasket Women 2009 in Madagascar where they finished seventh.

"We have played in the Quarter-Finals before. This year we decided to take one game at time. Our focus is on Cote d'Ivoire and we will do our best to get a win," she explained.

"Every time you are on the court and you see that little sign 'Turkey 2014', that is the goal. If you don't think about that, I don't know what you are here for."

Should Mozambique and Cameroon succeed in their respective Quarter-Finals, they will face each other in Saturday's Semi-Finals and Senken knows what the atmosphere has been like to face Mozambique at the Maxaquene Gymnasium.

"Games like that calls for a lot of mental strength. Our team has shown that we are mentally strong," she explained.

"Being 10 points down with three minutes left, we are looking at the score board, we never worry about it or having a fear of losing.

"Mozambique is a very good team, and their supporters give them more strength.

"It is going to be a battle. But we can't worry about Mozambique until we play Ivory Coast."

When asked to describe Cameroon's team, Senken replied 'Fighters'.

"You can't teach that strength. You have to have it from within. Individually and as a group we just want it."

But how did coach Zedong manage to put this group of players together?

"We just get together and try to find a chemistry. When the coach says something we just execute it. We know each other strength’s by now. We just try to use it,” Senken explained.

When asked about his team's goals, Zedong answers "to reach the Semis."

Is this everything you want, the semis? "I don’t know. We just want to play our game," he says.

"This generation has been playing together for at least two AfroBasket.

"They must defend the colours of Cameroon," he went on.

Ramses Lonlack is due to finish her studies at the University of Memphis in December, and decided to represent her country for the second time.

"This is my dream to represent my country in the world championship," she revealed.

"When I was little I wanted to go to America. I went to America, now I want to represent my country in the top, facing teams like the USA, France and Brazil.

"Because of my height, I have to be quick, to steal the ball. That’s my game."

The Cameroonians are the outsiders among the title contenders that are Mozambique, Senegal, Angola, Mali and Nigeria, and by playing at such high intensity they have never been as close of causing the biggest surprise in AfroBasket Women history.

For full and in-depth coverage of AfroBasket Women 2013, go to the official website http://maputo2013.fibaafrica.com.

FIBA