AS the curtain closed on the successful Fiba Zone VI Games for both men and women on Saturday held at the University of Pretoria’s indoor sports centre, the South African basketball should have lots to cheer about with the men’s team qualifying for the All Africa Games to be hosted in Mozambique.

The South African men’s senior team were unfortunate, though, to miss out on qualification for the Fiba African Championship or Afrobasket, to be held in the Ivory Coast after being edged out 78-74 by their more polished Mozambican opponents the last game of the competition at the weekend. Continue reading »

Zimbabwe women met Zambia for their second game against each other in the tournament. The first time these two teams met, it was a massacre for the Zimbabwean team as they marched over a Zambian team that could not seem to get the ball into the basket.

Fast forward to the second game between these two teams – going into the game, it was almost obvious that the Zimbabwean team would dominate like they did in the first game, right? Wrong? Zambia started the game and outhustled, outran and outscored the Zimbabwean team 19-14 in the first quarter. That’s more points than they scored in the entire first half in the first game between these teams. The Zimbabwean team was playing their reserves most of the game – none of the usual starters played more than 10 minutes. Continue reading »

Ladies: South Africa vs. Mozambique

13 January 2011-  The second round between the two teams was another blowout in Mozambique’s favour. They started the game pressing South Africa in a 2-2-1 press and forcing them into early turnovers. South Africa was making the mistake of trying to dribble through the press, and as a result the team made 38 turnovers in the game, with 21 of them coming from their point guards.  This allowed Mozambique to get into their transition game early and outscore their opponents by 37-14 in the first.

The second quarter was much of the same and Mozambique went on a barrage from downtown en-route to making 11 out of 20 attempts from three point land in the game. The South African ladies seemed out of wind, out of sync and vastly overmatched up against Mozambique as they headed into half time trailing 24 -71. An interesting observation was creeping up on me at this stage – Anabela Cossa (6 Mozambique) was yet to miss an attempt in this game – she was perfect from the field. Continue reading »

During the Zone VI qualifiers taking place in Pretoria, Mybasketball sat down with the Zimbabwean National ladies coach, Ronald Garura and his captain, Fadzai  Mabasa and here is what they had to say:

Interview with Ronald Garura

Ronald Garura

Going into today’s game (Zimbabwe vs. Mozambique, game 1) what would you say that the player’s mindset was as well as yours? Umm… I think we really have the same mind-set going into every game, we respect our opponents but we do not fear them. We go out there and give it our best and play according to our plan, that way we can assess if we achieved our goals- whatever the outcome of our game. Continue reading »

Men: SA vs. Malawi

Basketball is a numbers game. 47; that’s how many points Malawi scored in their first game against Zimbabwe. 47; that’s how many points they scored against Mozambique. Malawi came into this game having lost their last two games by a combined total of 96 points. Therefore, fans expected South Africa to come in and tear them up from the beginning, but Malawi had other plans.  They started this game on a 5-0 run and South Africa seemed out of sync to begin it. The first quarter was an unimpressive 9-9 yawner that had fans shifting uncomfortably in their seats wondering what was happening to the South African squad.

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Ladies: SA vs. Zimbabwe

The highly anticipated matchup between Zimbabwe and South Africa’s women’s teams lived up to its hype. In a game that was the fastest paced so far in the tournament, there was no clear favourite and both teams fought tooth and nail till the final buzzer. This game featured 3 lead changes and 5 times when the score was tied. Zimbabwe started off the game in a man to man defense, and South Africa countered that by running a high screen and roll offense. South Africa’s shots were not in the first 4 minutes of the game, and Zimbabwe got off to a running start, largely in part to 8 first quarter points by Helina Nyagato (8). But South Africa quickly rallied back when Gabisile Ndlangamandla (5) provided a much needed spark off the bench to finish the quarter tied at 15-15. The two teams continued to trade baskets and play stingy defense for much of the second period and the game was tied at 28-28 heading into half time.

Continue reading »