ABIDJAN (Cote d'Ivoire) - Senegal’s quest for their first FIBA U18 AfroBasket title continued on Thursday after beating Madagascar 54-40 in the Quarter-Finals.
The game was always going to be about intensity for Senegal, who are more athletic and have length.
However, the start to the game was far from it as the contest was played at a rather slow pace with controlled possession from either side.
Senegal took the first quarter 15-9, and Madagascar responded in the second to go into the halftime break trailing by a couple of points (23-21). During that stretch, Madagascar played zone defence that troubled Senegal.
“A win is a win, but this was hard because the team of Madagascar is really good. They created a lot of problems for us with the zone, and I think that any team that knows Senegal a little bit knows we are fair on zone. So, we need to work on it. We need to be really patient and play our basketball,” Senegal coach Mouhamed Sene said with concern.
Senegal denied second-chance opportunities, especially in the third quarter.
They defended with bigger players at the top and ran multiple traps for the skilled point guard Harinosy A'Ranty Rasetriarivony and found some success in not only altering his game but also stopping his teammates.
“It was an intense match. The problem was that the guys didn't have enough strength to contain the pace set by Senegal. We started poorly—as we have in all our games, actually—but in the third quarter, they surged ahead; we couldn't contain that run, nor could we manage to adapt to their style of play and their intensity,” Madagascar coach Tojo Hery Rasamoelina said.
Madagascar had a spark late in the fourth quarter, pulling the game down to a single digit but it was too little too late.
“On our end, our shooting accuracy dropped; we missed a few open shots, and that really affected the whole game. We were also rushed, leading to turnovers. After that, things just fell apart,” coach Tojo said.
For coach Sene, it was important for his side to alter A'Ranty’s game, and he feels they found success at it.
“We know that he's a good ball handler, he has good vision, and we said we'll try to push him to make less than eight assists. So, we pushed him to take some shots. We wanted to push him to play in other ways than he usually plays.”
Senegal captain Code Mbengue led his side with a game-high 19 points and 13 rebounds. Mousa Diallo had 11 points, and Bara Danfakha contributed 10.
For Madagascar, only A'Ranty, who finished with 15 points, scored in double figures.
FIBA