Overdose Up Station overrun Universite Douala in opening game of Zone 4 AWBL Qualifiers

 

YAOUNDE (Cameroon) - Reigning Cameroon champions Overdose Up Station opened their FIBA Africa Zone 4 qualification series for the Africa Women's Basketball League (AWBL) with an overwhelming 80-58 win over arch-rivals Universite Douala at the Paposy Arena in Yaounde on Friday.

Overdose Up Station showed their readiness to take the game from the blast of the whistle making the first quarter look like a practice session with a 23-6 score.

The second quarter of the game saw the awakening of Universite Douala as they came back fighting to close up the gap for a score of 19-14 to put the half-time score at 42-20.

Universite Douala

On resumption of the third quarter, Overdose adopted the fast breaks to further punish the Douala-based team who also rallied back with three-point shots from the wings to score points and slow down the pace of their aggressors.

The last quarter saw the Universite players hungrier as they resorted to the wings for treys that earned them a win of 20-15 but it was not enough to upset the Cameroon champions.

 

Overdose were the better side on the night as they were 25-17 on points from turnovers, 58-32 from points in the paint, 7-5 in second-chance points, 20-9 points from fast breaks and 33-16 bench points.

Confident Overdose Coach Roger Dassi who has won the national title four times in a row told FIBA.basketball that his side is sure of winning the qualification ticket.  "With the win over Universite Douala, we're already one step away from securing the ticket. We will not relax until we take the second game against CNSS (DRC).

Team captain Mbidzenyuy Eileen summarized their win this way. "We're champions and that is why we played hard to win. We made some mistakes but we will correct them in our next game and secure the ticket. Against CNSS will be tough but we will surpass them.

Universite Douala Coach, Ngoug Manang noted that his players were initially shaky from the start of the game given the importance of the qualifiers.

"I think the importance of the event overwhelmed the players and they were under pressure. We will go back and tell them to concentrate more on the game and play without pressure. I don't need them to be perfect but they should play objectively and they can be better. We can’t rule ourselves out yet because we still have a game at hand."

Saturday will see CNSS making their debut in the tournament against University Douala while on Sunday, CNSS and Overdose Up Station will meet up for the final game of the qualifier.

FIBA