Last bullet for Morans in WCQ first round

National men's basketball team, Kenya Morans, play hosts Senegal in their last match of round one at the ongoing FIBA Africa World Cup qualifiers. 

The Cliff Owuor-led side needs a win to give themselves a chance at proceeding to the next round of the qualifiers for the World Cup set for next year in Indonesia, Japan and Philippines. 

Morans have their work cut out as they face the hosts who come to the match a bruised lion, having lost their last game 62-57 to Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). 

On their part, Owuor's charges are coming off a 105-51 annihilation in the hands of Zone Five rivals Egypt in their second game of the qualifiers. The East Africans had lost their opening match 66-56 to DRC. 

The odds are against the Kenyan side if previous results between the same sides are anything to go by. The tactician will also miss the services of Albert Odero who appeared to have been ejected from the Egypt match with 36 seconds remaining. 

A win against Senegal takes Morans to four points tied with the hosts and likely Egypt if they are to lose their match against DRC who remain unbeaten to top the group at four points. This then would result in a head-to-head and points tally to determine the three teams that proceed to the next round. 

Sixteen nations are vying for the continent's five spots in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023. They are Angola, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Congo DR, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Guinea, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda. 

In the first round, the 16 teams are divided into four groups with four team apiece. Each team is facing the other three teams in their group in two tournaments played over three event windows.

The teams will play three games in each window. These nine-day windows were spread out between November 2021, February 2022 and June 2022.

The top three teams from each group advance to the Second Round of the African Qualifiers. Here, the group’s three advancing teams will join three other teams to create two six-team groups. All teams will carry over their results from the First Round.

In the Second Round, each team will play each new team in their group during two tournaments played over two event windows schedule in August 2022 and February 2023.

At the end of these additional six games per team, the two top teams in each group, along with the best third-placed team, will qualify to the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023.

The qualification process follows the FIBA Competition System successfully used for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019.