ABIDJAN (Cote d'Ivoire) - In their historic first home game in Women's AfroBasket, Côte d'Ivoire lived up to expectations by protecting their home court with a 75-63 victory over Egypt.
Ivorian fans packed the 3,500-seat Palais des Sports Treichville Arena for a beautiful celebration of women's basketball on the continent.
The hosts' performance oscillated between near-perfect execution and less impressive moments, but in the end, they opened the 2025 Women's AfroBasket in a manner that delighted their home fans with a win.
Egypt was short-handed, arriving in Abidjan without Nadine Mohamed, Jana Elalfy, and Soraya Degheidi. They had moments of brilliance, but the Ivorians were determined to win.
Laetitia Sahie delivered a stellar performance, finishing with 23 points and five rebounds, while Liberian-born Molly Kaiser came up with 16 points.
Côte d'Ivoire's captain, Kariata Diaby, recorded a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Raneem Elgedawy led Egypt with 18 points and 14 rebounds. Meral Abdelgawad, the other Egyptian player to score in the double digits, added 10 points.
TURNING POINT: After trailing by as many as 18 points in the second quarter, Egypt adjusted their game on both ends of the floor. They headed to the locker room at halftime with a five-point deficit (44-39).
However, Côte d'Ivoire returned for the third quarter with one goal in mind: Stop Egypt's momentum, and their plan worked to perfection as they closed the third quarter with a comfortable 61-46 lead. Egypt never threatened the hosts again.
With 3:34 left and Egypt trailing 70-56, Julian Martinez was ejected for dissent, which was the last straw for Egypt. This forced assistant coach Ahmed ElSayed Gomaa to take over for the rest of the game.
HEROE: Put together a group of excited players playing in front of their home crowd for the first time. Then add an enthusiastic crowd celebrating their heroes through good times and bad. The result for the hosts could not have been any different.
Laetitia Sahie delivered a performance to remember. The 24-year-old power forward exemplified Côte d'Ivoire's dominance by shooting 9-for-10. She finished just two rebounds shy of a double-double.
STATS DON'T LIE: BOTTOM LINE: Egypt played hard the entire game, but their 18-point deficit in the second quarter was too much to overcome.
The biggest difference between the two teams was Côte d'Ivoire's dominance in the paint. The Ivorians had difficulty shooting from outside the paint, but they shot 28-for-49 near the basket.
What comes next? Egypt take on Angola on Sunday while Côte d'Ivoire return to action on Monday against Angola.
THEY SAID: "Playing as a team was key for us. We took valuable lessons from our warm-up game loss against Mali. It's a privilege for me to be in this position of helping Côte d'Ivoire win our first game in Côte d'Ivoire. All that in front of our friends and family, it was special." - Côte d'Ivoire power forward Laetitia Sahied.
"It was a beautiful atmosphere. We are grateful for the crowd and the energy that they gave us. I ma just excited to be here and defend out country. I am grateful to be able to represent the [Cote d'Ivoire] flag, I have a lot of pride and I am going to do everything in my power to always defend our flag and I am happy to be here. The goal is always the Championship. We are taking one game at time but the ultimate goal is always to win." - Ameryst Alston.
FIBA