Africa-Press – Senegal. Senegal’s men’s national basketball team, who fell on Thursday from Mali (74-71), finished top of group A of the pre-Olympic qualifying tournament, Africa zone.
The Basketball Lions have obtained two victories in as many outings in this tournament which is being held in Lagos (Nigeria) and which is attended by six teams, out of eight expected selections, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda having withdrawn.
Against Mali, the Lions ran behind the score for a long time before pulling out all the stops in the fourth quarter to finally get rid of a solid Malian team, thanks to an excellent Brancou Badio, author of 19 points.
The Malian team, which could count on the twins Fousseyni and Hassan Dramé, led at half-time, 38-33, before being beaten by the Lions of Senegal, led by Mamadou Guèye « Pabi », in the absence of head coach Ngagne De Sagana Diop.
With this victory, the second after that won (94-87) over the host country of the tournament, Nigeria, during the first day played on Monday, the Senegalese team finished at the top of their group.
The Lions will know their opponent for the semi-finals at the end of the meeting to oppose Guinea Tunisia, Friday, at 5 p.m. GMT.
The pre-Olympic qualification tournaments concern 38 teams not directly qualified for the Olympic Games, including eight in Africa and sixteen in Europe.
Eight other teams from the American continent and eight Asian selections are forced to go through the Olympic prequalification tournaments to obtain a ticket for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The five winners of each tournament will participate in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments scheduled for July 2024.
The Basketball Lions, absent from the World Cup scheduled for September 25 to 10 in Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines, will have to fight to win the only qualifying spot for Paris 2024 at the end of the Lagos tournament.
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