Kenya fall in the quarter finals despite improved show on Day Two

Kenya women 3x3 senior team’s journey in the FIBA 3x3 Africa Cup came to an end Sunday evening as they lost narrowly to Madagascar 15-14 in the quarter finals in Cairo, Egypt. Kenya came into Sunday’s busy slate needing a second group stage victory over Pool B rivals Democratic Republic of Congo but that changed minutes into the game, as Benin lost to Morocco, leaving the door for advancement into the quarter finals fully open for Kenya. 

There wasn’t a change however in Kenya’s approach to the game, coming out strongly to eventually fall short 14-12 to the tournament's sixth seed. A departure from the Saturday games laced with turnovers, awful shooting and excessive fouling was notable, with the Kenyans accounting for only 4 team fouls, compared to the 9 fouls committed in both games the previous day.

Christine Akinyi led the scoring for Kenya with 5 points as Jemimah Night added 4 points in a game that had Kenya shoot better than her opponents, making 44% of their attempts to DRC’s 39%, while remaining perfect from the free throw line. The early minutes in the quarter final matchup initially looked one sided – Kenya jumping into a 3-0 lead in just three minutes, thanks to a pair of Christine Akinyi field goals and a layup from Mary Anne Nyagaki.

A foul seconds later followed up by a ferocious 8-2 run from Madagascar in four minutes found Kenya scrambling. Lisa Omondi, scorer of the clutch shot against Benin stood up once again, connecting on a long two before leading Nyagaki into quick opportunities under the basket to tie the game at 11-11 with 90 seconds left in the game.

The tying point and go ahead free throw painted the picture of how tough Nyagaki was in the game, finding ways to bully defenders and finish above them with ease. She led all Kenyan scorers, putting up 7 points on 6 of 14 shooting. A drawn up play by Madagascar saw Rondro Raherimanana drop a left wing two with 49 seconds left to go, leaving Kenya down 15-13 after three Malagasy trips to the basket.

Akinyi quickly responded off the timeout to cut the lead to one but Madagscar took control of the ball with 12 seconds to go to see out the slim win – booking a place into the tournament semifinals. Surprisingly, that was the only game that saw Kenya commit less fouls – 3-6 to Madagascar, while posting lesser turnovers, accounting for six, compared to the opponents 12.

Akinyi was Kenya’s top scorer throughout the tournament, scoring 19 points with Jemimah Night and Mary Anne Nyagaki hitting 12 points each. Lisa Omondi was the lowest scorer with 7 points in 4 games played.