AfroBasket - Hosts face tough test and battle of giants in AfroBasket Quarter-Finals

ABIDJAN (AfroBasket/FIBA Basketball World Cup) By the end Wednesday’s AfroBasket Quarter-Finals four teams will remain in contention for the three places available for African teams for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

In two highly-anticipated games, hosts Cote d’Ivoire will face Cameroon, and the quarter-finals action ends with a battle between the two tallest teams in tournament as Nigeria squares off against Senegal.

The race for Spain 2014 opens with ten-time African champions Angola taking on Morocco followed by a rematch between Cape Verde and Egypt.

Bur for the host nation to overcome a highly-talented Cameroonian team - who defends, moves the ball well, and is very physical - Cote d’Ivoire will need much more than the home crowd support. They will need to improve their field goal percentage and play a lot better than they did in the preliminary round when they overcame Senegal, Egypt and Algeria.

These two teams have faced each other on three occasions in recent years, and the Cameroonians prevailed in 2007 and 2011.

Cote d’Ivoire’s Ismael N’Diaye, who faced Cameroon in those three occasions, acknowledged that "it will be a very physical game."

In the last game of the day, Nigeria will either crash out or improve their chances of winning their first African title.

They have not lost to Senegal since 1997, and with both Ike Diogu and Al-Farouq Aminu playing at such high level in Abidjan, the Nigerians never had better opportunity to be crowns of Africa.

Nigerian Ben Uzoh told a post-game press conference: "They [Senegal] have a lot of great players, they have a nucleus.

"They are going to be ready, so are we.

"It is going to be a dog-fight as these two teams are very strong minded

"We have a great inside and outside presence. So it is going to be a great, great match, and I am looking forward to."

When asked how far Nigeria could go, Uzoh said: "As far as Lord takes us."

Senegal’s Maleye Ndoye has not missed an AfroBasket since he first represented his country in 2005.

"It is going to be a great match-up," he said.

"At this stage, it does not matter who you are going to play against, you have to be ready, if it is Nigeria or Angola we have to be ready."

Angola advanced to the Quarter-Finals with an unbeaten record in four games while Morocco opened their AfroBasket campaign with a 56-54 defeat to Tunisia, although they overcame Rwanda, Burkina Faso in Group B before they stun Algeria in the Eight-Finals.

It has been 33 years since Morocco last defeated Angola, but their latest showings in Abidjan indicate they are able to do much more than their AfroBasket historic suggests.

Angola’s capitain Carlos Almeida has featured at three AfroBasket tournaments, and he is clearly cautious about the knock-out stage of the tournament.

"We’ll do the homework and make sure to put it in action in the quarter-finals. It won’t be easy, but we will try our best," he told journalists minutes after the 82-36 Eight-Finals win over Mali.

The biggest AfroBasket upset to date came from the North of Africa as Egypt stunned defending champions Tunisia 77-67.

The Pharaohs will take on Cape Verde who eliminated the Republic of Congo.

The last time these two teams faced each other in 2007, Cape Verde prevailed to a 53-51 win in the bronze medal game.

Both, Egyptian Wael Khedr and Cape Verde’s captain Mario Correia took part in the game, and they are getting ready for a rematch in Abidjan.

"Egypt is a great team, very well coached, they are superior to us, but we’ll do our homework, and make sure things go well," Correia told FIBA.com

He went on: “We are here because we believe anything is possible.

"No, we can’t compare to the 2007 achievement yet. We have only qualified for the quarter-finals, which is a good thing, but there is a long way to go" he explained.

Khedr explained to FIBA.com, things had to improve for them.

"We are here playing for the Egyptian people. Whichever team we face in the Quarter-Finals, we will step on court with the same approach," he said.

FIBA