2023 Women’s Afrobasket : Another Failed Attempt For Lionesses

The objectives of Cameroon in the ongoing Women’s Afrobasket Championship were evidently to better the bronze medal performance obtained in 2021, and head on to get the first ever trophy for the country in this competition. Unfortunately, none of these objectives were obtained as the team was booted out in the quarterfinals by 11-time champions, Senegal despite a beautiful game display. Cameroon won their first 5-8 place classification match against Guinea 74-37 yesterday August 3, 2023. They will head on to fight for the fifth/sixth places today against Mozambique. No matter what position Cameroon ends up with, basketball expert, Yves Tsala says the team had a good performance globally and with few touches, Cameroon’s first ever major basketball trophy could come from the women.

Despite a good run in the group phase, Cameroon could not better the bronze medal obtained in the last edition. What analysis do you make of the performance of the team?
Globally, it is a good performance. We beat Mozambique; a big team to start the competition and we got a second victory in the group phase against Guinea.  We saw a well-balanced team in defense and attack. In the quarterfinals, we met Senegal. We know it is a big team.  Great teams show up in big moments. The quarterfinals stage is different from the group phase because it is a win or go home game. Senegal possess experienced players like Aya Traore, Fatou Dieng and Oumoul Khairy Sarr. These types of players know how to handle the “money time”. l knew it would be difficult for us if we are close at the end of the game.  

We realized during the game against Senegal that the bench of the Lionesses was less fruitful as compared to that of their opponents? What was the problem?
Our bench was not consistent.  We started the game well with our starting five.  But at the end of the first quarter and in the second, with our replacements, the level of the team fell and Senegal came closer to us at half time.  In the second half, our Coach lost confidence about our bench.  You can notice that Jessica Thomas played 39,4 minutes over 40! She had no back up. Ewodo played more than 35 minutes.  The production of our bench was poor. It is the average level of our roster ‘only one effective center’. Our preparation was short. Our loc...