Ncube Controls the Game, South Africa Edges Past Ghana
Entering the game against Ghana, the plan was simple. Slow down their bigs as much as possible and take advantage of their guards and wings. We successfully did one of those two things at least. In a closer game than anticipated, our offense fought through Ghana's 3-2 zone and shot a respectable 9/25 (36%) from beyond the arc. As for every other aspect of the game, it was the Lazarus Ncube show.
Ncube scored 31 points on 12/21 shooting and added 6 assists, 5 rebounds, and 5 blocks. Kabo Kolane was also a spark plug off of the bench, scoring 13 points in 13 minutes, including shooting 3/3 from beyond the arc and 5/6 from the field.
Ghana's center did cause problems for our South African bigs, as he shot 12/14 from the field and scored 29 points, but our defense held up well against all of their other starters. In a back and forth game, Ghana led with just over 2 minutes left in the game, but Ncube and the Tshwete brothers were able to close out the 4th, resulting in a 112-106 Victory!
Up next, we have a game against 1-3 Misr, who should not be overlooked!