ABIDJAN (Côte d'Ivoire) - Cameroon easily defeated hosts Côte d'Ivoire 83-68, moving closer to a fifth-place finish at the 2025 Women's AfroBasket.
Meanwhile, Mozambique got off to a good start in their matchup against Uganda, going on to secure a 76-58 victory and a spot against Cameroon in their final game of the competition.
Cameroon stun hosts
The hosts looked like a pale shadow of themselves when they went up against the hard-hitting Cameroon team. Cameroon dominated with a 15-point win.
Cote d'Ivoire had a rough start in the first half, falling behind 23-14 and 32-11. The Cameroonians scored 11 of their 15 three-pointers in the first half, which made it difficult for the hosts to make a comeback.
Despite going 18-15 and 25-13 ahead in the remaining quarters, the hosts had little chance of winning due to the 30-point deficit they carried into the second half.
Jessica Thomas led the scoring with 24 points, shooting 7-for-11 from deep. Joelly Belleka was six points behind, converting 4-for-9 from range.
Game reactions
"We will go into recovery and rest as the players are really tired. We have a tough opponent in Mozambique tomorrow and we need to be focused. The scenario will be different from today, but we will strategise for that in the morning," Cameroon Head Coach Ahmed Mbombo Njoya.
"We need to include everyone in the final game. Some of the players have not given what was expected and this is a chance for those who did not get the opportunity. We have to bring a winning mentality. Both teams won their Group Phase matches and Uganda have good players, like Jane Asinde and Paige Robinson, so we need to handle them to win," Stéphanie Leite, Cote d'Ivoire head coach.
“I feel terrible because we expected to do a better job. This loss doesn’t represent our full potential; it’s not our face. This score against Mozambique is quite disproportional; we believe we can play with more energy. We can do a better job against Uganda because we must finish strong and well. This is not the result we expected; we wanted to finish at least fifth. We’ll try to do a better and finish seventh.” - Cote d’Ivoire center, Kariata Diaby.
I don't know what happened with our team against the bigger teams. Maybe we weren’t confident or hardworking enough. We had one good game and one bad game, showing some inconsistency. But today, we came out strong to play the home team, Côte d'Ivoire. Compared to last night's game, we weren't prepared for what we faced. Nigeria was more aggressive than us last night. We need to prepare for Mozambique. Since the start of the competition, we've had one win and one loss, then one more loss and one more win. Against Mozambique, we need to prove that we can win two games in a row. That's the only thing we need to do.” - Cameroon center, Dulcy Fankam.
Mozambique move closer to third consecutive fifth finish
Mozambique held their own against the Uganda Gazelles, securing a 76-58 victory and moving closer to a fifth-place finish. This is a feat they have achieved in 2023 and 2021 after falling in the quarterfinals.
Nasir Salé's team lost their quarterfinal match to Mali 86-68, but regrouped for a strong start against Uganda, leading for most of the game after a 21-14 opening quarter. A 22-17 second quarter put the team ahead by 12 at halftime.
Uganda cut the deficit to as few as 18 points in the third quarter and came close to turning the tables at 48-46, but they allowed Stefanie Chiziane to go on an 8-point run.
The East Africans never recovered, and the score ended at 56-49. A 15-9 final stanza sealed the win.
Chiziane led the scoring with 16 points, two more than Chanaya Pinto and Leia Dongue. The team recorded 19 steals, nine more than Uganda, whose scoring was led by Hope Akello with 18 points.
Game reactions
"What happened yesterday (losing to debutants South Sudan by a point) was unfortunate but we needed to turn the page and come back strong but the game didn't go our way. We have to come back tomorrow and fight, despite the quick turnaround. The biggest takeaway of the tournament has been that it is anyone's game and we can't go into matches expecting to win. We are a young squad with great pieces and the more we keep playing together the better we get," Uganda Center Melissa Akullu.
"We brought a winning mentality despite yesterday's loss, in what was our big game. It was a tough game but we needed to win and represent our country well. We will be out to win again in our last match," Mozambique Shooting Guard Silvia Veloso.
FIBA