CAIRO (Egypt) - Al Ahly Sporting Club are through to the quarters of the 2025 Women's Basketball League Africa (WBLA) unbeaten, after seeing off Sporting Clube de Luanda 86-65 on Monday to complete a 3-0 run in Group A.
The Egyptian champion's experience proved too much for the Angolan debutants who put up a fight the entire game, despite a slow start.
We have to come back much better in the next round - Delicia Washington
Hagar Amer and Raneem Elgedawy starred yet again to lead Tarek Abouzied's charges to victory. It was a relatively close encounter, given the difference in the two side's history here, Sporting de Luanda's slow start in a 24-12 opening quarter leaving them chasing the entire game.
The Angela Cardoso-coached side trailed by nine (69-60), with just 2:41 left to play, but the Egyptians, enjoying momentum, ran the scores to win by 21. Amer, returning to the continental stage after her 2022, 2023 exploits with Alexandria Sporting, continued to prove indispensable, dropping her third double-double of the 2025 showpiece, leading the hosts in scoring with 25 points, 10 more than the next best scorers Elgedawy and Nadine Mohamed. South Sudan International Delicia Washington was the other player in double digits, finishing with 11.
The 2022 WBLA Most Valuable Player Amer shot 9-for-13 from the floor, including 3-for-6 from range, while pulling down 15 boards, two more than Elgedawy who shot 5-for-16, adding 4 of seven from the free throw line. Amer surpassed Yacine Diop's leading efficiency rating of 36 (in APR's 92-37 win over Bravehearts) registering 39 in just under 31 minutes on the floor, Elgedawy finishing with 19.
Point Guard Delicia Washington, while acknowledging the score line doesn't necessarily tell the full story of the game, said: "We missed a lot of shots that we normally make but we continued to fight, tried to get back and locked in on defense so we could translate it to offense and stuck together."
She added: "Their pace was troublesome to a certain degree. They kept pushing the ball on transition and we weren't stopping them but once we adjusted we got the win. After such a battle in the group phase, we have to come back much better in the next round. From the jump we have to lock in on defense. We have a lot of players that can shoot the ball but it has to start with defense."
FIBA