Ivory Coast tip off with victory over short-handed Egypt

Tournament hosts Ivory Coast secured a well-deserved 75-63 victory against Egypt in the Women’s AfroBasket encounter at the Palais des Sports Arena. Ivory Coast enjoyed the home crowd’s support in the fully packed arena shortly after the opening ceremony. Egypt tipped off the tournament short-handed missing on the services of Nadine Mohamed, Jana Elalfy, and Soraya Degheidi. Ivory Coast came out of the blocks early as they opened a nine-point (21-12) lead at the end of a highly athletic opening period. Egypt massively improved in the second quarter reducing the deficit to five points (39-44) going into the halftime break. Coming from the locker room, the hosts once again found their rhythm recreating a 12-point (61-46) lead going into the final quarter. Despite the strong fight in the final quarter, the hosts bagged a 12-point victory on the day. Laetitia Sahie (188-SF-2000) (23 points), Molly Kaiser (173-G-2002) (16 points) and Karita Diaby (12 points) led Ivory Coast’s scoring board in double digits. Raneem Elgedawy (193-F/C-1997, college: WKU) (18 points) and Meral Abdelgawad (180-G-1998, college: WKU) (10 points) were the only Egyptians who managed to score in double digits. Egypt returns to the floor on Sunday as they take on Angola while the hosts will play the latter on Monday to finalise the group.
Courtesy of: kawowo.com