Kenya hit Cape Verde for first AfroBasket win

Kenya Lionesses secured their first win at the Fiba AfroBasket Championships after running out 61-58 winners against Cape Verde in their last Group “A” match of the 25th edition in Yaounde, Cameroon on Sunday night.

The win keeps alive their hopes of making the quarter-finals, but that will be determined late Monday after Cameroon face Cape Verde.

It has lifted Kenya on top of Group “A” with three points from two matches followed by Cameroon (two points) and Cape Verde (one point).

America-born Victoria Reynolds, was the tormentor-in-chief, as she got on the scoreboard with 17 points.

Reynolds, who had been kept quiet in the opening match which Kenya lost 74-50 against the hosts Cameroon on Saturday, also had five assists and a similar number of rebounds.

Coach George Mayienga’s side led the first quarter 16-12, but trailed most of the match after been outscored in the second period 21-12. They managed to level the scores at 58-58 with 43 seconds left on the clock with a Christine Akinyi two-point jump shot from a Selina Okumu assist.

A steal by Okumu two seconds later from Analeesia Fernandes' bad pass gave the East Africans the chance to get the winning points after Monalisa Mendes committed a foul on the Kenya Ports Authority player, while attempting to defend under the rim.

Okumu missed the first free-throw, but made the second to put Kenya 59-58 up before Christine Akinyi hit the last nail with a two-pointer 32 seconds later.

Both sides had the opportunity to score from the penalty line with 11 seconds left, but Jade Leitao missed for the Cape Verdeans and Okumu for Kenya.

The win was sweet revenge for Kenya, who lost 63-41 in the ninth place playoff when these two sides last met in 2013.

Before this win, Kenya had also suffered losses against Cape Verde (64-57) and Angola 964-51) at the 2019 AfroBasket and in their opening match against Cameroon three days ago.