South Africa stun defending champions Egypt 71-68 in the FIBA Africa Championship
A dominant second half allowed South Africa to squeak past Egypt 71-68 on Sunday in a Group-C preliminary round game. It was the first win of the tournament for the South Africans.
After this game, the Cameroon leads the Group C followed by Ivory Coast while Egypt still edge the South African for the third spot.
Egypt put their foot on the gas right from the started and blew away with a 13-2 surge. With 2:14 remaining in the first quarter, Egypt was enjoying a solid double-digit lead at 22-6 and finally ended the quarter 11 points ahead
of South Africa.
The South African squad that looked completely out of touch in the first quarter did slightly better in the second quarter. However, it was not good enough to prevent the Egyptians from leading them into the break. Egypt led South
Africa by 39-24 advantage at the close of the first half.
Trailing by 15 points, South Africans stepped up the ante in the third quarter and launched a ferocious assault that saw them devastate the Egyptians with their 18-7 blitz and bring the deficit down to just one (45-46). The reeling
Egyptians swiftly responded as Mohamed El-Kerdany hit five unanswered points. However the South Africans continued to make inroads and showed only two down at the 55-53.
From there on began the most thrilling battle that went right down to the wire. In the passage that followed, the scores were tied on two occasions while the lead changed four times.
South Africa was able to tie the scores at 60 midway through the final quarter, but Egypt didn’t allow them to come in front and led them through most part of the period. With less two minutes remaining on the clock, South Africa
finally broke through with Kegorapetse Letsebe’s two point shot, which handed them the final lead of the game.
Christopher Gabriel marshalled the South Africans with 14 points and 11 rebounds. He spent 23 minutes on the court and went four for nine from the field and six of eight from the charity stripe. Neo Mothiba and Letsebe finished
the game with 11 and 10 points respectively.
Ramy Gunady was the major contributor for team Egypt. He made a game-high 21 points and also clutched five rebounds during his 30 minutes stay on court. Gandy shot 57 percent from the field and 45.5 percent from the three-point
range. El-Gammal also came up with nine points, but in the end their contributions were not enough to save Egypt from defeat.
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