Pharaohs Roll Past Senegal to Stay Unbeaten in AfroBasket 2025

Pharaohs of Egypt proved to be a dominant force against the Lions of Senegal as they registered their second win over another West African opponent in a comfortable 91-77 win on game day 3 to stay top in Group D at the ongoing 2025 AfroBasket in Angola.

Guard Ehab Amin was again big for the Egyptians as he finished with 19 points, a massive 11 rebounds and with the highest efficiency rate in the game but it was Mohamed Taha who led the scorers chart with 22 points and 3 rebounds in the 91-77 victory. With the win, Egypt improved to a 2-0 while Senegal dropped to 1-1 in the 2025 AfroBasket with only a round of games left. Another Egyptian big man Omar Oraby dropped 12 points and 4 rebounds while his mate Amr Abdelahim chipped in 11 points.

For Senegal who won their opening day fixture against Uganda and were hoping to go on a run, Ibrahima Faye was the most efficient player at 25 with 17 points and 10 rebounds while Brancou Badio led the scorers chart for the West Africans with 18 points and 7 rebounds but it wasn't enough to topple the firepower being exhibited by the Egyptians.

The Egyptians got the game going when Taha made a jump shot for two points but Moustapha Diop responded almost immediately with a brilliant shot beyond the arc for a three with Ibrahima Faye providing the assist. With 1:44 seconds left in the first quarter, Ibrahim Zahran dropped a three-point shot to give the Pharaohs a two-point lead as they closed out the first quarter at 20-18.

The topsy-turvy continued in the second quarter with Egypt stretching its lead to 10 points at some point but a late rally from Senegal saw them go into the break trailing by six points.

The Egyptians still didn't lose their focus in the second half with the Senegalese coming close by taking the game to a point deficit even with the lead changing 10 times during the duration of the game but they kept their composure and increased their shooting accuracy and also kept forcing the Senegalese to making turnovers from which they scored 20 points as against 12 points registered by the Lions.

In the end, points from the bench got the Pharaohs through as they contributed 33 as against Senegal's 22 points.

Speaking after the win with AfricaBasket, the youngest player in the Egyptian roster, Ibrahim Zahran praised the Senegalese side but insisted that they were more focused on getting a win.

“Senegal is a pretty tough team, they have loads of talents and players who play overseas unlike us, we have a lot of us playing in the local league but we believe in ourselves and we got this."

On Ehab Amin’s performance, Zahran added, “he not only scores, he grabs every rebound and opens up his teammates, he is a very great player, it is an honour to be playing alongside himself and many other great players in the team.”

Coach Mohamed Elkerdany praised his team’s depth and how they can adapt to style being put out by their opponents.

“We have twelve players who are always ready to play, we know teams like Mali and Senegal would always fight back but we have the players ready to combat such especially with the chemistry offensively and defensively based on our style of play.”

Senegalese coach, Ngagne De Sagana Diop shared what he felt his team couldn't cope with during the entire game.

 “From the start of the game, they always made big shots, they were driving and kicking and making shots, they kept beating us on the one on one and that was what happened in the entire game. We will watch the video and analyse it tomorrow, learn from it and keep getting better.”

With two wins in two Group D games, Egypt now have a brilliant chance of advancing to the quarterfinals while Senegal will need a win in its final group game to ensure a ticket to the knockout stages..

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[Photography Courtesy of FIBA]