- Mali 80-66 Uganda
Uganda’s Gazelles turned in a commendable performance against Mali in their opening game at the 2023 FIBA Women’s AfroBasket.
For large parts of the game played on Friday afternoon at the BK Arena in Kigali, the Gazelles matched Mali pound for pound.
Alberto Antuna’s charges were specifically impressive at the defensive end. The Gazelles switched through 1-3-1 and 2-3 zones with a lot of discipline and were also helped by Mali’s poor outside shooting, particularly in the first half.
At the other end of the floor, the Gazelles also ran good transition sets but often times the quick outlet led to turnovers and ultimately some easy points for the Malians who piled up 28 points off the cough-ups. Uganda committed 31 turnovers
Mali had a head start to the second half thanks to a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to close the second quarter. The West Africans led by as many as 9 points and Gazelles had to play catch through the third quarter and twice came to within 4 points with Brenda Ekon (12 points), Flavia Oketcho and Janon Otto but trailed by 9 going into the last quarter.
A foul throw from Alima Dembele (9 points & 10 rebounds) followed by a three from Kankou Coulibaly took Mali’s lead to double figures at the start of the fourth quarter and the hill became too steep for the Gazelles to climb despite reducing the deficit to single digits midway the period.
Otto finished with a team-high 19 points. Claire Lamunu also reached double figures in scoring with 10 points to go with 9 rebounds off the bench while Melissa Akullu pulled down 10 rebounds to go with 8 points.
Djeneba N’Diaye poured in game-high 25 points to go with 5 assists and 7 steals to lead the Silver medalists from the previous tournament. Fatoumata Sanou contributed 15 points off the bench despite committing a game-high 6 turnovers.
Uganda returns to action on Gamedy 2 on Saturday to take on Senegal at 7:00 pm (EAT) while Mali takes a day off.
