NGR - Phenix, Racing win classification duel

LAGOS (FIBA Africa Zone-3 Men Qualifiers) - Phenix basket club of Cocody, Cote dʼIvoire and Racing Club of Lome, Tome Sunday won their respective classification games against NPA Pythons basketball club of Monrovia, Liberia and Energie basket club of Cotonou, Benin Republic.

Racing Club of Togo won its first match since the championship began last Wednesday to finish seventh on the ranking beating Energie of Benin by 66-65 points leaving Energie at the bottom of the 8-team qualifiers.

Both side shared the four quarters equally with Energie showing some promises in the third quarter which they won by 19-13 points but failed to build on it in the last quarter thus allowing the Togolese side to come back into the game winning by 17-14 points (11-16, 21-20, 19-13 and 14-17)

Phenix on the other hands defeated NPA Pythons of Liberia by 65-59 points to place fifth while the Monrovia-based Pythons whose deadly poison was curtailed finished in the sixth place.

Phenix showed an early desire to pick the fifth slot of the qualifiers winning the first quarter easily by 15-04 points, which is enough to seal victory for them as attempt by Pythons to rally back in the second and third quarters (13-09 and 21-19) was not enough to turn the table against the Cocody-based Ivorian side who went on to win the last quarter by 22-21 points.

By: Olusegun Ikuesan
FIBA