Rédaction Africa Links 24 with lexpress
Published on 2024-02-24 02:45:00
The Ankoay from Madagascar with more addresses were able to create a surprise yesterday.
A missed entry for the Ankoay of Madagascar, but a defeat rich in lessons for the rest of the competition.
The Ankoay of Madagascar started their qualification tournament for Afrobasket 2025 with a defeat against the Elephants of Ivory Coast, with a score of 69-77 (11-14, 19-26, 17-16, 22-21) on the court of Hassan Moustafa, Cairo, yesterday.
The Elephants opened the scoring with a free throw to lead 1-0. Faralahy responded by opening the scoring for Madagascar with a 3-point shot. After five minutes of play, the score was 12-7 in favor of the Ivorians. With their height advantage, the first quarter was dominated by the Ivorians, who were very accurate in 2-point shots and free throws, but the Malagasy managed to hold their ground, trailing by a narrow margin of 11-14.
The second quarter was marked by Madagascar’s efforts to close the gap with the Ivorians on a 3-point shot by Faralahy, making it 14-14. Seeing the Malagasy catch up, the Ivorians picked up the pace to lead 26-17 with five minutes left in the second quarter.
The Ankoay of Madagascar tried everything to reduce the Elephants’ lead 26-20, 26-21, then 26-22 after two free throws by Livio. Three minutes before the break, they only led by the score of 28-24, then 28-27, then 40-30, end of the second quarter.
The Ivorians won the first two quarters, while the Malagasy won the last two. But the large gaps in the second quarter, in favor of the Ivorians, were decisive.
Weak points
Madagascar lost their match during the second quarter due to inaccuracy, losing many balls. The Ankoay managed 22/31 shots from two points, for a 49% percentage, against 20/31 with a 65% percentage for the Ivorians. Madagascar only managed 7/35 shots from three points (20%) against 6/27, or 22% for the Ivorians.
The weak points of the Ankoay were free throws as they only managed 6/11 shots (54%) against 19/24 (79%) for the Ivorians.
Livio Ratianarivo, captain of the Ankoay, emphasized that “the Ivorians were able to impose their style of play. Regarding our performance today (yesterday), I am somewhat happy because we were not far behind the Elephants.”
On his part, Jeannot Ravonimbola, coach of the Malagasy national team, did not forget to congratulate the Ivorians on their victory. “We tried to play better, but the Ivorians are good shooters. This was a handicap for us. We missed a lot of baskets, especially free throws. On the attacks, we shot too quickly.”
John Douaghlin, the coach of Ivory Coast, explained that “the Malagasy caused us a lot of problems and we were a bit sluggish. We did the essentials and we will try to win all our matches.”
Read the original article(French) on lexpress.mg
