Mozambique edged past hapless Rwanda 72-55 in Afrobasket Group D clash

Rwanda dropped to 0-2 in Abidjan following a loss to Mozambique who were playing their opening game and were fresher on the court, registering a 72-55 win over the 2023 hosts. The back-to-back defeat means a bottom finish for the East Africans who now face the 2nd team in Group C in a make or mar clash for a place in the quarterfinals.

Carla Covane ran the show for the Pearl of the Indian Ocean as they are known alongside Leia Dongue for the Mozambicans and the former utilised her time spent on the court, registering 15 points and nine rebounds. Dongue on her part registered 14 points and also had nine rebounds.

Following their opening day loss, Rwanda who were semifinalists in the last edition of the competition were expected to bounce back and Destiney Philoxy got off to a good start when she opened the scoring with a drive to the basket. And just as it happened in the previous loss to Nigeria, the Mozambicans rallied back in the first quarter and never relinquished their lead again for the entire duration of the game.

Another standout player for the Southern Africans was Ingvild Mucauro who contributed 11 points in a comfortable win that saw them lead by as much as 14 points in the first half and ended up winning the tie with a 17-point margin. Mucauro expressed her thoughts about being called underdogs.

"I think as a first game, it went well because we wanted to win but we made a lot of mistakes defensively at the end of the game. Now we've got to rest and think about tomorrow. As a team, we want to be the best that we can. If they call us the underdogs, we got it. We're going to fight until the end to represent our product the best way we can, to show that Mozambique has basketball. So we are ready to fight if we can put them right."

Rwanda tried to push for a fight back in the second half but Mozambique's 20 assists and the fact that they were able to out-rebound their opponents 46-37 ensured a good win at the end of hostilities.

Bella Murekatete couldn't rally her troops to a positive outcome as she was fouled out in the third quarter with her team trailing by 9 points leaving Cheikh Sarr's team grounded after two games and waiting to get a favourable draw in the classification game. 

After the game, Rwanda's Keisha Hampton expressed her disappointment after the loss but still maintained some positivity.

"I think we showed a better effort, I think we fought a little bit more. It's just not good enough. Personally, myself, I've got to be better. Better, because I'm an experienced player. I've just got to be better for my team but we want to come into the next game, execute it and win. Like I said, us leaders, us more experienced players have to take accountability. So we are going into the next game focused."

Coach Nasir Sale of Mozambique was happy with the win but admits a tougher game against the defending champions.

"This is the first game and we know that the model of the competition has changed from the last one, the game against Nigeria is very important for us, especially for the classification. We did not lose today and this is important. But we will try to improve our situation there. We will change some different motions of defence. And we will come to practise.

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