After a second straight loss with Nigeria, we started a long streak of seven victories. Today, still against Nigeria, still after a great, balanced match, the streak went broken. But we are mathematically third, and we can start thinking about avoiding a Nigerian threpeat in SemiFinals.
South Africa had a bold start. Kolane shot a three pointers for a first break, sustained by good presence at rebounding and high shooting percentages. Nigeria suffered our 3-2 zone with too many lost balls, although Akiga was almost unstoppable. I decided to afford Nigeria with a brand new starting five, with Magubane PF and Wagana moved as C. Sehularo injury pushed me to put Collombon as SG and Grumede as SF rotation, while Resha, Issa and Burr completed the ten. With three TO's in Q1, Nigeria tried to arrange its attack with minimal success, as Wagana and somehow Mofokeng added their contributions to Kolane.
After a nice 23-15 in Q1, South Africa started Q2 aggressively, increasing gap to a sound 13. Then, an impressive 11-0 break brought Nigeria very close, when Wagana added 4 points in a while giving new momentum to South Africa. First half closure scored 45-40, with quite good shooting percentages and solid performance at rebounding, although foul troubles of Magubane (3), Wagana (3) and Issa (2) made me uncomfortable.
In Q3, Nigeria decided to play hard. Another 11-0 pushed Nigeria ahead, although Wagana added 5 to tie the match again. Fouls had great impact on the match. Magubane was fouled out in Q3, spending three crazy fouls and closing with 5pts, 4rbs in 20'. Akiga decided to take match leadership (he closed with 28 points adding 22 rebounds!), scoring and grabbing rebounds and defending and passing the ball. Our shooters went in trouble to score: netiher Kolane nor Mofokeng nor Schartner were able to add points, and Nigeria closed Q3 with a partial 27-17, leading by 5.
In Q4, fouls situation got tragic. Wagana sit on the bench by few minutes, with a passable 14 + 8. Then Issa went close to be fouled out, but, before loosing him too, Will Burr got injured after a foul by Akiga. We afforded final few minutes trailing by 8, with Issa PF and somebody like Grumede, Resha or Neimand rotating as C, in pure emergency. Akiga added points, and Bundor too. Nigeria captured several OR's, keeping the control of the match.
But South Africa did not resign. Although mission went impossible, Mofokeng and Kolane scored three pointers reducing the gap. The final 40" seemed infinite. At 26" Nigeria led 93-88, but Grumede scored a great 3-pointers! Two free throws by Bongo set 95-91, then another 3 pointers by Mofokeng closed the gap to 1! Bongo scored the first free throw, missed the second, Neimand captured a great rebound: 96-94! Kolane took the responsibility for a dramatic three pointers, missed it, again Neimand captured a rebound, but gave the ball to Schartner. Final shot to the overtime... missed! 96-94 was the final score, after the greatest match of the whole tournament.
My MVP is definitely
Dingane Kolane. 24 points, 10rbs, 4asts, leading the team at the beginning and at the end of the match. Great job, although if he would have scored the final three pointers... well, what to add?
Ghana - Misr 70 - 112: The impressive Misr won with a large gap against Ghana, that is keeping best resources for final two, desperate matches. Misr doubled Ghana rebounds, shot with more than 50%, in a relaxing game.
Senegal - Tounes U21 111 - 102: against all opinions, Tounes decided to spend a PIC in the worst moment. Senegal led the game in first quarter, defended against Tounes comeback in Q2 and Q3, before accelerating and closing the game in Q4.
With first three seats virtually assigned, just two things will thrill next two weeks. One is about who is going to get first place, with Misr favourite by bookmakers
We are third, and will probably meet Nigeria again. Fourth place is open, and we will attend