2023 FIBA AfroCan: Morans suffer Tunisia defeat to finish sixth

Kenya men’s basketball side - Kenya Morans - finished their 2023 FIBA AfroCan tournament in sixth position after falling 59-67 to Tunisia in the 5-6 positional classification game at the Kilamba Arena, Angola on Saturday afternoon.

The loss was a second for the Kenyan team to North African representatives after succumbing 55-46 to them in Thursday’s quarter final matchup at the same arena.

And on Saturday, a revenge looked to be on the cards as Morans bounced to an early lead, one driven by Friday’s player of the match Bramwel Mwombe and Erick Mutoro, seeing the team go up 8-1, with a Derrick Ogechi three pushing up the lead to a comfortable 11-4 gap.

Tunisia came back firing, and through their lead points scorer Jawhar Jawadi, to draw level at 11-11, before taking a 14-13 first quarter lead.

The second quarter saw Kenya take the game to Tunisia once again, even leading 26-18 after a 5-0 run that culminated in a returning Bush Wamukota dunk and a couple of points from Mwombe.

Ben Behir Yahia then engineered another Tunisia run - seeing them take a 9-0 run that gave them a 31-30 lead after enduring a 13-8 quarter that saw them trail 26-22 at halftime.

There appeared to be no route back for Kenya in the second half, with Kenya’s only other lead coming five minutes into the quarter at 32-31.

Tunisia dominated the half - registering a huge 25-13 advantage that even after a 20-20 fourth quarter, had the win all but secured, and a fifth position at the second edition of the AfroCan to go with it.

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“Of course a great start to the game and the half but then fell off at the end,” Kenya’s top scorer - Derrick Ogechi - who put up 12 points and four rebounds in 29 minutes said after the game.

Mwombe was the other impact player for the team as he scored 11 points and 11 rebounds, with Wamukota and Bosire racking seven and six points respectively.

The man on top of the scoring charts for Tunisia was the aforementioned Jawadi on 19 points, with Firas Lahiani adding 18 points and six total rebounds.

“We did not want to finish fifth coming in as last edition's finalists. We need to mature up in future and keep our poise,” Morans head coach Cliff Owuor said post-game, promising to integrate a few young players in the squad in the next edition - one that comes four years later!