Rédaction Africa Links 24 with lexpress
Published on 2024-03-16 02:43:00
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| The ESSCA players (white) qualified for the semi-finals of the Smatchin basketball tournament, yesterday. |
The players of ESSCA or École supérieure du Sacré Cœur d’Antanimena, reigning champions of the inter-university basketball tournament Smatchin, easily defeated the ESSAGRO basketball players with a score of 88-36 (22-10, 24-11, 19-8, 23-7) in the semi-finals match played yesterday on the outdoor field of the Mahamasina Sports Palace.
With this victory, the Antanimena players are on their way to defend the title they won in 2022. From the start of yesterday’s quarter-finals match, the ESSCA basketball players set the tone by taking a lead of 2-0, 2-2, 3-2, and then 9-2 with 5 minutes left in the first quarter. Three-point shots followed for the ESSCA girls, and the score at the end of the first quarter was 22-10.
The nightmare for the ESSAGRO girls worsened in the second quarter because after 1 minute and 27 seconds of play, the score was 26-10. All the ESSCA girls managed to score, and the score at halftime was 46-21.
Calm
With a 25-point lead, the cause was won as the domination of the Antanimena basketball players continued, 48-21, 50-21, 54-25 (-5’51). All the attacks led by ESSCA turned into points. The score at the end of the third quarter was 65-29.
The fourth quarter was only torture for the ESSAGRO girls. Instead of managing their 35-point lead, the Antanimena basketball players accelerated the pace to lead 79-32 with four minutes left in the match. With the good technique of team captain Cynthia Nambinintsoa, second captain of ESSCA, who coordinated all the attacks of her team, the opposing team was completely suffocated and unable to find solutions on the court, easily losing the ball. The final score was 88-36, signaling a spot in the semi-finals for the defending champions.
“Our advantage lies in the complicity between my players. Since the 2022 title, they have been training together. There has never been an easy match, but for today’s match (yesterday), we were calm. For the rest of the competition, we will try to impose our style, and the goal is to go all the way,” said Zo Razafimanantsoa, coach of ESSCA. As for Cynthia Nambinintsoa Andrianjaka, second captain of ESSCA, she explained, “We were superior in all aspects of the game. In attack or in counter-attack, we managed to score a lot of points. For the semi-final match, we will see who we are playing against. We are progressing step by step because reaching the final is not automatic.”
Given by Raherinjatovo
Read the original article(French) on lexpress.mg
