RSA/MOZ - Mozambique take step towards Afrobasket women with win over South Africa

PRETORIA (FIBA Africa women Zone Six qualifiers) - Mozambique took a big step towards qualification for the 2011 Afrobasket women on Sunday when they defeated South Africa 87-56 at the University of Pretoria.

The game was both nations opener of their four-nation Zone Six Qualifier - Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe - that is played in a round robin format and which sees the top team go through to represent Zone 6 in the Fiba African Championship for Women to be held in Mali later this year.

Mozambique, who got off to a good start in front of a solid crowd, rushed to a 14 point lead thanks to superior defence and good transition play, with scores at 26-12 after the first quarter.

It was much of the same in the second Quarter as Mozambique further asserted their dominance by winning the quarter by 12, leaving the score at 49-27 at half time. Mozambique’s solid defence forced South Africa to turn-over the ball excessively (15 to Mozambique's 3).

Both teams shot close to a 50% field goal percentage, but the difference in the first half came from beyond the new extended three-point line. South Africa shot 13% (1 of 8) and Mozambique shot an impressive 50% (5 of 10) from.

By the end of the 3rd Quarter Mozambique had used a full court press to extend their lead over South Africa to 36. South Africa continued to fold under pressure which resulted in them committing a miserable 29 turnovers.

South Africa's, who at one point trailed by as much as 38 points, salvaged some pride with a late comeback, reducing the gap to 21 as the final score read 87-56.

Takalani Mfamadi finished with the highest point total for South Africa with 15 points while Aleia Rachide was the top scorer for Mozambique with 17 points in spite of only 14 minutes on the floor.

After losing with such a big margin South Africas chances for qualifying after the opener look bleak while Mozambique looks like the favourite to make it through.

From the remaining Zone Six countries, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Malawi, and Namibia are not be attending the tournament, while Angola automatically qualified for the 2011 African Championship as champions.

Zone Six qualifiers continue on Tuesday 11th January when South Africa play Zambia and Mozambique face Zimbabwe.

FIBA Africa