South Sudan stunned the Kenya Lionesses coming from a 5-point deficit in the first quarter to secure its second win ever at the FIBA Zone 5 Qualifiers. The team led by Albert Antuna is making its third appearance at the tournament since the founding of the AfroBasketball Women in 1966. The Bright Starlets signed Coach Antuna as their head coach towards the end of last year in anticipation and preparation for the upcoming tournaments on the continent. He had prior experience working with women’s teams on the African continent after his famed time with the Uganda Gazelles through the 2023 FIBA AfroBasketball Games. He also had a short stint with the Senegal National Women’s Basketball team for the 2024 Paris Qualification Games.
His presence and dedication to South Sudan’s women’s basketball team have already shown remarkable growth with them shocking Kenya with a hard-earned win.
The Game
South Sudan won 86-69 over their neighbor Kenya in an interesting match-up. The team had never won any game against the Lionesses in their previous meet-ups. Even more, they never had a great start at the regional tournament and managed to register only one win in 2023 against Rwanda with a 54-40 score. Kenya started with a lead in the first quarter (19-14) but was held to only 11 points in the second quarter, where the Sudanese team scored 24 points to finish the first half with a lead of 38-30. The Bright Starlets returned for the second half ready to maintain their scoring streak and defensively held the Kenyans to 15 points in the third quarter.
Despite Kenya scoring 24 points in the fourth quarter, South Sudan relentlessly maintained the lead with 25 points scored.
South Sudan dominated with 42 rebounds with 25 of those coming off the defensive end. It also was boosted by its off-bench players who contributed 23 points compared to Kenya’s off-bench players who contributed only three points.
This is a big win for South Sudan women’s basketball and it’s clearly in a growth trajectory pathway. Delicia Washington, a former guard for the Connecticut Sun, led the South Sudan team with 26 points, seven assists and five steals. Rose Macuei was also key to the South Sudan team with 11 rebounds.
Egypt Standing Firm on Business
The Egyptian side, Al Ahly, made no mistake in allowing the Uganda Gazelles to take the lead at any time throughout the game. Right from the jump, the Egyptians maintained an early lead in the first quarter scoring 23-14. The Uganda Gazelles, captain Jane Asinde, led the team to a scoring spree and held Al Ahly to only 10 points in the second quarter. Both teams had a tight defensive day on the court and barely scored in the third quarter with Egypt outscoring Uganda by four points (13-9). Despite Uganda’s efforts to outscore the Egyptians in the fourth quarter, they were unsuccessful in securing a win and lost by three points (65-62).
The last time these two teams met, Uganda beat Egypt by one point (86-85). So far, Egypt remains the only unbeaten team at the games.
