The National Women's Basketball team, Lioness have been drawn in Pool A of the FIBA Women's AfroBasket Tournament set to begin on September 17th at Yaounde Multisport Complex in Cameroon's capital city. The 12 teams that will take part in the prestigious African tournament have been drawn in 4 groups, each consisting of 3 teams.
The Kenyans have been pooled alongside Cameroon and Cape Verde avoiding the tough Egyptians who proved to be fierce opponents during the Zonal games. Egypt who are in Group C will face off against Senegal and Gabon. Regarding the draws, Kenya coach George Mayienga insisted that they will take one game at a time. “We will take on our opponents in the group knowing that only two of the three teams will move to the next round, if we train and play our cards well, we have a chance. But we will see what we have in store once the championships start.” Mayienga said.
In the first phase, each team will take on the two (2) opponents in its respective group in a one-leg game. The top teams in each group will advance directly to the Quarter-Finals. The teams ranked second (2nd) and third (3rd) will play the Qualification Round for the quarter-finals. The winners of the Quarter-Final advance to Semi-Finals, while the losers will play the classification games for the 5th to 8th Places. The classification game for Third-Place and the Final will be played on the last day of competition (September 26).
In their last show in Dakar, Senegal in 2019, The Lioness lost all their three games; 64-57 to Cape Verde, 64-51 to Angola and 55-39 to Mozambique. They will now be hoping to redeem themselves this time round. Their recent performance beating Egypt to clench a spot in the tournament has clearly shown their toughness and determination. Nigeria head to Yaounde as the two-time defending champions, Senegal finished runners-up two years, Mali finished in third place.