- Rwanda 66-61 Uganda
With every win at the 2023 FIBA Women’s AfroBasket, it was a new high for Uganda’s National Basketball Team, Gazelles.
But on Wednesday night, it was never to be for the Gazelles who fell to Rwanda, 66-61, in the quarterfinals of the tournament.
The Gazelles had a good start to the game and led by double figures (18-8) with 1:52 before closing out the period at 22-11. Melissa Akullu (7 points), Janon Otto (6) and Jane Asinde (5) led the production for Uganda in the opening ten minutes.
Uganda started the second quarter with three straight turnovers that gave Rwanda room to breathe and the hosts crawled back to trail by 4 (27-23) with 3:10 to play and close out the frame trailing by just a point 28-27. It was a drought for the gazelles who scored just 6 points in the period as Rwanda went for 16.
Defensively, the start to the third quarter from Uganda was far from ideal as Rwanda went ahead with four straight triples to start the third quarter and the lead was into double figures (41-28) quickly with Ineza Sifa (19 points) cooking from deep and at the end of the period it was a 20-point (58-38) game.
Uganda battled back slowly into the game in the fourth quarter and made it a contest late but with Asinde out with an ankle injury suffered in the second quarter, the offensive fight was left to Otto the rest of the game and the wing poured in a tournament-high 31 points, picked a game-high 13 rebounds and handed out 4 helpers in a losing effort. Melissa Akullu, the only other Gazelle to score in double digits, tallied 16 points to go with 13 boards.
Destiney Philoxy (16 points) and Janai Robertson (15 points) also scored in double figures for Rwanda while Assouma Uwizeye pulled down 13 rebounds to go with 8 points.
Gazelles will take on Mozambique in a classification game while Rwanda will battle defending champions Nigeria in the semifinals on Thursday.
The other semifinal will be between Mali and Senegal while Guinea will play Cameroon in a classification game.
Thursday Fixtures (EAT)
Semifinals
- Rwanda vs. Nigeria – 7pm
- Senegal vs. Mali – 10pm
Classification Games
- Cameroon vs. Guinea – 1pm
- Uganda vs. Mozambique – 4pm
