With all eyes on the football Women’s World Cup, the young women of Mali have experienced a fairy tale run in another World Cup event – the semi-finals of the U-19 basketball World Cup – after ousting Australia. In other basketball news, Morocco’s men’s team won their first continental trophy since winning the 1965 FIBA Afrobasket, and East Africa is mourning the loss of Florence “Fofo” Sifa.
By Silalei Shani, bird story agency
Mali continued to prove they have the best youth basketball development program on the continent after their U-19 team pulled of an unprecedented victory at the FIBA U19 Women’s basketball world cup in Madrid, Spain. The dramatic 74-67 victory in the round of 16 against Australia that secured them a quarter-finals ticket will remain etched in the memories of the Malian players for years to come.
Unsurprisingly, Maimouna “triple-double” Haidara led the way for the Malian girls with 20 points and 11 rebounds, while Mama Cisse also made sure her presence was felt with 13 points, 9 rebounds and 4 steals at the finish. While Australia missed out on the quarter-finals for the first time in their team’s history, Mali now becomes the first African nation (women or men) to make it into the quarter-finals three times in a row at a major FIBA event.
In the second edition of AfroCan – a new competition for African national teams with the objective of giving players the opportunity to showcase their talents in a competitive format – Morocco defeated Cameroon, Kenya and the defending champions DR Congo before narrowly overcoming Cote d’Ivoire in a thrilling final game, to win the tournament with a 5-1 record. This is Morocco’s first continental trophy since winning the 1965 FIBA Afrobasket competition. They finished fourth in the first installment of the tournament, in 2019.
In the quarterfinals Morocco faced a rebuilding Kenya Morans team. After seeing that tough match through to a 55-46 victory, they then went on to face DR Congo, recording a 76-69 win before facing their final opponents Cote d’Ivoire. Mohamed Choua led his team to victory with 13 points, 15 rebounds and 2 blocks, supported by teammates Kevin Fraceschi (14 points), Abdelhakim Zouita (11 points), Sourfiane Kourdou (13 points) and Ali Lahrichi (12 points). Franceschi was also named to the all-tournament team for his stellar performance during the week.
East Africa’s basketball community was left reeling with the shocking news that Burundi national Florence Sifa had passed away in the USA. Sifa, fondly known as “Fofo” or “Dada” was one of the best female basketball players to ever come out of Burundi.
With her flashy handles and ability to finish at the rim, Sifa dominated the East African women’s basketball scene before receiving a scholarship to play for Jacksonville College in Texas (opening the door for fellow Burundian and former Berco Stars teammate, Ines Nezerwa, in the process). Sifa went on to join the University of Cincinnati Bearcats with 33 starts from 2018-20. She led the team to 20 consecutive wins – the first in almost two decades – and to an appearance at the 2019 WNIT Quarterfinal, one of the best post-season runs in program history.
Sifa was also honored as the 2018 American Athletic Conference Newcomer of the Year, eliciting a statement from the director of athletics after the tragic news.
“Fofo was a leader for our Bearcats women’s basketball program who had a radiant personality and a will to win in all aspects of her life…. Her family is in our prayers” they said.
Former teammate Nezerwa, who currently plays professionally in France with La Glacerie, shared her sentiments on her Facebook page.
“There wouldn’t be Giti without you Fofo. I am who I am today because you took a chance on me. I owe you a lot Dada. Rest easy,
wangu, you will be missed.”
bird story agency
<script src=”https://bird.africanofilter.org/hits/counter.js” id=”bird-counter” data-counter=”https://bird.africanofilter.org/hits/story?id=1208&slug=magical-mali-experience-winning-spell-at-the-fiba-u-19-women-s-world-cup-east-africa-s-basketball-community-mourns-burundi-s-greatest-female-basketball-export-african-basketball-roundup” type=”text/javascript” async=”async”></script>
