Kenya Lionesses faces South Sudan for the third place playoffs in the 2025 FIBA Womens’ AfroBasket Qualifiers with Egypt squaring off with Uganda later on in the finals after what has been a sizzling week of basketball in Cairo.
In their last group phase match, Kenya lost its third match of the campaign 84-62 despite a good fight between the lone unbeaten sides in the competition. George Mayienga’s charges who were out looking for their second win in the five team tournament and had a good plan at it at least for the earlier stages of the contest between favorites Egypt.
Egypt took a tight two opening quarters (20-19/15-13) as they retreated to close home the duel. The Pharaohs came alive in the second stanza of the game with tactical switches to technically incapacitate Kenya. The pair of Nadine Mohamed and Farida Abdelnabi led the onslaught for Amr Elmaraghy’s side, scoring 27 and 16 points respectively, with the former completing a double-double with 10 rebounds.
Victoria Reynolds and Mercy Wanyama combined for 37 points as Kenya dominated the paint 38-22 in a good fight back. However, the hosts made sure to break Kenya’s momentum, shooting 15 of 35 from the floor compared to 3 of 15, with threes proving to be the difference maker for the North Africans.
Coach Mayienga was impressed nonetheless with his team’s performance against the giants of Africa. “Our game was going well until the third quarter when we gave them room to shoot their threes. We knew they were going to take the game to us, but when they tried in the first half, we couldn’t stop them. We let up a bit in the second half and allowed them to win.”
Meanwhile South Sudan came alive to wallop winless Burundi 77-46 for their second win of the tournament. The win is the team’s third since making their debut in the Zone Five competition in 2021. Adut Bulgak and Delicia Washington, making her debut for the team, led the onslaught with double-doubles to lead the team 16-10, 25-14, 23-13 and 13-9 in the quarters.
Adut scored 15 points and added 13 rebounds, while Washington had 11 points and 12 assists to come within two rebounds of a triple-double. Ines Nazerewa of Burundi afterwards said; “Basketball gives back what you invest and from this performance there is a lot of positives to pick.”
