Afrobasket 2021: Africa’s Top Four Teams In Five-Star Performance

Tunisia, Senegal, Nigeria and Egypt made perfect starts to their Afrobasket 2021 qualifying groups with three wins out of three.
In Group A, the defending champions, Tunisia began with a convincing 37-point win over Madagascar before going on to beat both DR Congo and CAR, sending out a clear message that they are determined to retain their title in 2021.
Senegal began their Group B campaign with an even more convincing win as they crushed Kenya 92-54, but their victories over Mozambique and Angola were a lot closer.
New Coach Boniface Ndong will be satisfied his team is virtually guaranteed a place at the Afrobasket 2021.
Nigeria’s D’Tigers were missing its NBA and EuroLeague players but still recorded a 100% record in Group D with wins over South Sudan, Rwanda and Mali.
They were led by ‘Captain Fantastic,’ Ike Diogu as he weighed in with an average of 16 points per game.
Egypt, which hosted Group E, were represented by young squad of players with an average age of 25 years whose hunger saw them beat Uganda, Cape Verde and Morocco.
Some of their stars, Aly Ahmed and Ehab Amine, who were named MVPs of the Under-18 African Championships in 2010 and 2012 respectively, as well as Anas Mahmoud have all played college basketball in the USA.
The opening Group D encounter saw Nigeria face South Sudan as two former NBA colleagues clashed as coaches.
Nigeria were coached by Mike Brown, who was in charge at the Cleveland Cavaliers when South Sudan boss, Luol Deng was a player.
Brown had joined the Nigerian National team after four years as assistant coach of NBA powerhouse, Golden State Warriors.
Deng and South Sudan were late replacements in the qualifiers after Algeria withdrew, citing poor preparations as a result of Covid-19.