DAKAR/RADES (Senegal/Tunisia) - On Saturday 27 August, five players rose to the occasion in games played in Dakar and Rades, helping to boost their teams' chances in the race for the 2027 World Cup in Qatar.
Here's a recap of Thursday's six games.
In the first game of the second round of the 2027 African Qualifiers, Carlik Jones showed South Sudanese fans what they had missed during his two-year absence.
The point guard inspired the Bright Stars of South Sudan when Guinea threatened to hand them their third loss of the campaign.
Jones finished with a team-high 18 points and a game-high seven assists. Guinea found themselves trailing by as many as 27 points, but cut their deficit to just four later in the fourth quarter. South Sudan won 81–71.
The reigning African champions entered the Dakar Arena with a sense of urgency, recording the largest win of the day by beating the Democratic Republic of the Congo 100-68.
Abou Gakou made the Congolese look helpless, shooting 6 for 9 to finish with 18 points.
Omar Abada came up with a recital of scoring and playmaking plays that led Tunisia to a narrow 60-56 victory over Cape Verde.
Abada was the only Tunisian to score in the double digits and finished with 26 points, almost half of Tunisia's total. Tunisia improved their record to an encouraging 5-2 in the process.
Egypt knew that losing their fourth game of the tournament was never an option, and Omar Oraby delivered his best performance yet.
The seven-foot center dominated on both ends of the floor, finishing with 15 points and 11 rebounds for his first double-double of the tournament. Oraby's terrific performance helped Egypt upset the host team, Senegal, 76-67.
Yves Missi caused Nigeria all sorts of trouble. He blocked four of Nigeria's shots, led his team with nine rebounds and led Cameroon with a game-high 24 points. Missi was unstoppable. Cameroon defeated Nigeria 78–62.
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