Rédaction Africa Links 24 with lexpress
Published on 2024-02-26 02:45:00
The Ankoay have regained their smile by defeating the Central Africans yesterday.
A first victory for the Ankoay in the race for Afrobasket 2025 by winning a tough game against the Central African Republic. The defeat against Egypt on Saturday has been forgotten.
The Ankoay of Madagascar saved face by winning with a score of 76-69 (18-17, 20-11, 22-17, 25-15) against the Central African Republic. They pocketed their first victory, resulting in a third place in Group D during the last match of the first window in the race for qualification for Afrobasket 2025 played in Egypt.
The start of the match was a bit tough for the proteges of Jeannot Ravonimbola, coach of the Malagasy national team. The two teams were searching for each other and after four minutes of play, Madagascar was leading with a score of 8-4. With less than 3 minutes and 37 seconds left in the first quarter, the Malagasy players received five team fouls.
It was an opportunity for the Central Africans to get back into the match 16-15, 16-17, 18-17 and end of the first quarter. The Malagasy players showed a new determination by scoring their first attack to take a 20-17 lead. The Central Africans responded and came back to level the score at 20-20, 22-22 and then 25-22 with a three-point shot from Elly. The Ankoay, who committed too many fouls and lost too many balls, saw the Central Africans take the lead to lead 37-30 at the end of the second quarter. The Central Africans dominated the beginning of the third quarter as Allan Dokossi’s team, the top scorer on the Central African side (19 points), widened the gap and the Ankoay were trailing 29-38, 31-38, 31-40.
Turning point of the match
Gradually, Elly Randriamampionaona regained his accuracy (22 points) and started to click with every shot in combination with Sitraka. With less than 5 minutes and 38 seconds left in the third quarter, the score was 41-47 in favor of the Central Africans and they led 54-51, end of the third quarter.
The fourth quarter turned in favor of the Malagasy. Shaken and motivated by their coach and the few Malagasy spectators, the Ankoay leveled the score at 60-60 with a 3-point shot from Elly. It was the turning point of the match as the Ankoay took the lead (63-60, 68-62, 71-66, 74-68) to close the match with a score of 76-69.
With 46.55% success rate in 2-point shots (20/43), the Malagasy shooters corrected their aim especially at the free-throw line where they made 18/21 free throws for a percentage of 85.71%. The success rate of 3-point shots is only 22% (6/27). During the post-match press conference, Jeannot Ravonimbola did not hide his joy: “We lived a very good match and the victory is well deserved. This victory will help us morally and psychologically. For the rest of the competition, we will look for tall players scattered around the world because we need them and we will call them back.”
As for Elly Randriamampionaona, he is very happy. This is our first victory. I believe all Malagasy people are happy. For the future, we will give our maximum effort and victories are possible as happened today (yesterday).
Donné Raherinjatovo
Read the original article(French) on lexpress.mg
