Clutch win for Rwanda as Zone 5 U16 Women's Qualifiers conclude
Rwanda came out top in a highly competitive match against Tanzania, picking a 66-65 victory as the FIBA Africa Zone 5 Qualifiers for the 2023 U16 Women's African Championship concluded at Lycée de Kigali.
KIGALI (Rwanda) - Rwanda came out top in a highly competitive match against Tanzania, picking a 66-65 victory as the FIBA Africa Zone 5 Qualifiers for the 2023 U16 Women's African Championship concluded at the Lycée de Kigali (LDK) court in Kigali, Rwanda.
Both sides came to the clash hungry for a win and it showed in the fighting spirit from either side of the court as the hosts trailed 17-14 at the end of the first quarter.
The Jacques Bahige-led Rwanda played a better second quarter to go 17-15 up and head to the break trailing by a single point, setting the stage for an edge-of-the-seat encounter in the second half.
Tanzania still led by a single point in the first five minutes of the third quarter at 42-41 but Rwanda managed to outscore the Raymond Ngezi-led side to the lead 49-47 heading to the last quarter.
Ngezi's charges managed to reclaim their lead at 61-59 with five minutes left on the clock but there was more to come in the match that witnessed 12 lead changes and 6 ties.
Despite being ahead for just over 25 minutes in the clash compared to the host's 11:42, Tanzania painfully lost the match by the slimmest of margins possible in basketball.
Tanzania, who had just one player on their bench never let that dampen their spirits as they fought on, scoring 21 second chance points against Rwanda's 11 to keep themselves in the match.
Both sides scored 20 from turnovers and 16 from fast breaks while Rwanda had 34, two more than Tanzania on the paint. The host's bench contributed 21.
Elizabeth Laizer who played the entire match for Tanzania had a massive performance, sinking 20 points while picking 23 rebounds and three steals.
She led two other teammate to double-doubles with dominance on the boards as skipper Upendo Katamboi scored 15 with a similar number of rebounds.
Namnyaki Mollel scored 11 in the 40 minutes she was on the court and picked 18 rebounds. Magdalena Fredymade 10 points and 9 rebounds while Nasinyari Roine gave 9 points and 11 rebounds with 6 assists.
Nawassa Peter Kutwa, the only substitute Tanzania had was on the court for 14:53 minutes, giving her side four rebounds, all on defense and one steal.
For the win, Emlyne Iragena scored 20 with 7 rebounds, 7 assists and 6 steals as Lilian Ingabire added 18 points to the tally. Tetanus Nicole had 13 points and 10 rebounds with 3 assists and 4 steals in 26:37 minutes.
FIBA