FIBA Women’s Afrobasket Qualifiers: Lionesses blowout South Sudan to win bronze

The Kenya Lionesses capped off their decent outing in the FIBA Women’s Afrobasket Qualifiers with a convincing 64-30 victory over South Sudan that secured the Kenyan team a third place finish and a bronze medal in the 5-team championships that tipped off this week in Lugogo, Uganda.

At the MTN Arena on Sunday, the Lionesses – winners of three games out of four- breezed past South Sudan as they had done against them on Friday evening (when they won 80-51) to at least bow out of the tournament on a high.

Once again, youngster Madina Okot was on fire, racking up another double-double with a game high 18 points and 16 rebounds. So huge was her dominance that she hit nine of her attempted 15 shots in only 26 minutes. She even attempted a three-pointer – which I haven’t seen oftenly.

Also in double digit numbers was Victoria Reynolds with 10 points and 6 rebounds in 22 minutes.

In a much rotated side through the fourth quarter, it would be unfair not to acknowledge the impact of Mary Anne Nyagaki and Rachel Achieng who both came off the bench to score six and 8 points respectively to further extend Kenya’s lead.

Skipper Melissa Otieno was the most efficient player of the game with a plus-minus of +28 and had a game-high 7 assists to her name.

Game Recap

It was not the usual quick start for Kenya in the first quarter as South Sudan took a 11-6 lead inside the first six minutes of the period.

Kenya then upped their tempo and made a 6-0 run through a pair of buckets from Selina Okumu, Victoria Reynolds and Mercy Wanyama to lead 12-11 going into the second quarter.

The Lionesses looked locked in on defense and the second quarter exemplified that as South Sudan were limited to only five points in the entire period – three of which were free throws and only one made field goal from Perina James Leime with 3:08 left to halftime.

In the same period, Kenya scored 17 points and led 29-16 at the break.

The third quarter was no different as Melissa Otieno and Victoria Reynolds converted back to back baskets to take Kenya’s lead to 35-19 with 6:08 left on the clock.

Madina Okot was cleaning the glass in the quarter, and she soon converted a hook shot that stretched the score margin to 20 points – at 44-24 with 1:30 left to the fourth quarter.

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The fourth quarter was all window-dressing until there appeared to be a disagreement between Kenya’s head coach George Mayienga and the group of officials at the scoring table. In the over two minutes delay, Mayienga seemed to have an issue with the points tally being relayed from the officials and still seemed to engage them at the end of the game.

It was not the title defense Kenya hoped, but a show of braveness from the team!