Egypt name 14-player preliminary squad ahead of AfroBasket Women 2015

CAIRO (AfroBasket Women 2015) - Egypt have announced a 14-player preliminary squad for AfroBasket Women 2015 which tips off on Thursday 24 September in Yaounde, Cameroon.

Menatallah Awad headlines the group, which is made up mostly of young players.

The 24-year-old player led Egypt with a team-high 12.8 points per game at AfroBasket Women 2013 in Maputo, Mozambique.

The squad also includes Reemwad Osama, who also performed well two years ago, when she averaged 11.9 points per game.

Egypt will also rely on Raneem Elgedawy, who epitomises the future of Egyptian basketball.

She led the way for the Egyptians at last year's FIBA Africa U18 Women's Championship on home soil in Cairo, where she led all players in rebounding with 13.9 boards.

She averaged team-highs of 18.0 points and 8.9 rebounds at this summer's FIBA U19 Women's World Championship.

Egypt, winners of the first two editions of AfroBasket Women in 1966 and 1968, are looking for their first continental crown since then.

This year, they failed to secure qualification in their FIBA Africa Zone V Qualifier held last summer in Kampala, Uganda and received a wild card to compete in Yaounde, where they will battle to improve their image.

They have been drawn in group B along with Angola,Guinea, Algeria, Nigeria and Senegal.

Egypt preliminary squad for AfroBasket Women 2015: Nouralla Abdelalim, Farida Abdelnabi, Laila Abdelrahman, Engy Afify, Fatma Aly, Mentallah Awad, Soraya Deghedy, Mentallah Eid, Raneem Elgedawy, Laila Elkousy, Sara Massoud, Nadine Mohamed, Sara Nady, Reem Ossama.

FIBA