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Egypt became the first African Nation to qualify for the 2014 Spain FIBA World Cup for next year after entering the final of the 2013 AfroBasket (FIBA Africa Championship for Men) held at Cote d’Ivoire.
In the first semifinal of the championship 5-time African Basketball champion Egypt eased past Senegal 70 – 63. Egypt and Senegal are not new to each other in the history of the Africa Cup of Nations as both sides have won the title five times each before going into today’s semi-final.
Egypt took the first quarter 20 – 15 while Senegal took the low scoring scoring second quarter 9 – 8. During the halftime break, Egypt were leading 29 – 23. After the break, Senegal took the third quarter 15 – 14, but could not hold off the pressure from Egypt in the last quarter. Egypt took the last quarter 28 – 24 to ease past Senegal 70 – 63 to reach the final of the 2013 AfroBasket and most importantly, confirmed their place at the 2014 Spain FIBA World Cup scheduled for next year.
Assem Marei netted 22 points for Egypt while Maleye Ndoye was top scorer for Senegal with 12 points.Point Guard Wael Khedr and shooting guard Sheriff Abdalla scored 16 & 15 points respectively for Egypt.
Egypt who ended the preliminary round on a win-less note, got to this stage due to the new format of the competition. Having lost all three group game (vs Senegal 70-72, vs Algeria 65-67, vs Core d’Ivoire 62-69), Egypt began to show its real stuff at the knock-out stage where former champion Tunisia became it first prey. The Egyptians came out stronger in the game against Tunisia, much to the consternation of every basketball faithful across the globe, when it drubbed the 2011 continental winners 77-67.
Senegal on the other hand finished second behind Cote d’Ivoire in group A after picking two wins over Egypt (72-70) and Algeria (62-57), though it went down by a double digit figure to Cote d’Ivoire (46-74). But that would not stop the 2005 silver medalist from progressing in the competition as it quickly dismissed Rwanda 67-57 in the second round before beating Nigeria 64-63 in a tight quarter-final battle to reach the semifinal.
The second semifinal match will be played between Cote d’Ivoire and Angola.
