Focus on Africa #6

[by Kris SANTIAGO] -How de body? (Hello in Krio)

Due to the fact that most leagues in Africa are heading to their final stages I decided to live up this series once more to give you an inside what's going on these days on the continent.

Morocco

Regular season came to an end last week. MAS finished it on top of the standings right in front of rivals ASS. Both teams are heading now to the "play-offs" where MAS is in Group A while ASS is placed in Group B. Other teams in Group A include FUS, Sport Plazza and RCA and Group B got IRT, CRA and ASE as well. Relegated to the second division are Tihad Sportif Casablanca and L'Ithry Nador.

Senegal

The quarter-finals in the West African country are on!
Douane battles Goree while Bopp faces current champions DUC and Sibac goes against UGB St. Louis while SLBC takes on US Rail.

Tunisia

Here, the Tunisian Cup is currently played out and the quarter-final pairings as follow:

CS Hammam-Lif - ES Rades
JS Kairouan - Stade Nabeulien
CA Bizertin - ES Sahel
TA Club - CS Cheminots

Also, ES Sahel and Stade Nabeulien both made once more to the championship games which will be going down 17th and 24th of April.

Algeria

Algerian powerhouse GS Petroliers is leading the pack in the play-off group while WA Boufarik CRB Dar-Beida are following equally on the second place of the standings. Boufarik lost actually to Dar-Beida on the 11th game-day 74-67 while Petroliers got edged by TBB Blida. NB Staoueli comes in at fourth place while ASPTT Alger ranks also fourth after beating Staoueli 84-87. Blida follows on the sixth place in front of Constantine and last placed Hussein-Dey.

Central African Republic

The third round has been almost completed even though one of the most interesting match-ups could not been played out due to electricity problems.

Bantou - Abeilles 69-65
AS Tongolo - Racing 63-54
BEAC - Zarasclo 68-49
Harlem - Red Star 55-86
Beafrica declared winner over Hit Tresor
Plateau - ASOPT 67-69
AS Mazanga - Tondema cancelled due to lack of electricity.


Ivory Coast

The sixth round of the national championships has been concluded:

SOA - Generation 58-53
SOA edged Generation behind Toe Thomas' and Camara Okpantcha's 14 and 13 point outings while Generation-captain Sosthene Kone scored 14 (eight in the first quarter) for the loosing squad.

ABC - Zenith 66-50
ABC stays perfect by trouncing arch-rivals Zenith thanks to Abo Kader (17 points) and Anderson Affi (15 points). Nguessan Ange netted in 11 for Zenith in the loss.

Ermess - IVESTP 44-50
Abdoulaye Traore (13 points) and Guy Tapa (10) propelled IVESTP to a hard-fought-win over Ermess who had their best in Sydney Zati (14 points) and Alassane Meite (12).

Phenix - OBC 64-68
Kangah Yassoua (17 points) and Alpha Abdoul Karim (14) could not prevent a four-point loss to OBC who were lead by MVP of the game-day Eloi N'gardinga (23 points) and Amani Kouassi (22 points).

For further in-depth reports, news and standings check out Ivoire Basket!
Here is a nice compilation of the 5th round of action.

And finally, the Super Cup Compal has been played out the first time between Portuguese and Angolan teams.
Portuguese champs Benfica took home the trophy by beating Primeiro de Agosto from Angola 64-57. US American Heshimu Evans led Benfica with 12 points while Elvis Evora added another 10 for the victorious team. Miguel Lutonda clicked in 14 for the runner-ups. The third place went to Petro Luanda who managed to overcome Ovarense 66-59 on the final day of the tournament. It is expected, that other Portuguese speaking countries will be added for future Super Cup Compal editions.

That's all for this edition, check back for more updates in the following weeks.
Spring time is here in Germany and in most parts of Europe, so I hope you guys are able to enjoy the weather wherever and whenever you can!

I'm out like rain and winter!