adminLillian Sibanda Sports Correspondent
IT was double tragedy for Zimbabwe’s men and women’s basketball teams as they were booted out in the semi-finals of the on-going African Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region 5 Under-20 Youth Games basketball matches played at Zimbabwe International Trade Fair yesterday.
Both the ladies and men’s final feature Angola and Mozambique.
The Zimbabwean ladies team was beaten convincingly 43-83 by Mozambique.
Their male counterparts met the same fate when they were dismissed 57-70 also by Mozambique.
The home men and women’s teams meet South Africa for the third and fourth place play-off this morning.
Zimbabwe’s women coach Carlos Niquice said his team put up a good fight and blamed fatigue for the loss.
“They played a good game and gave it their best but we were affected by the fact that the players did not get enough time to rest. Overall, I’m happy about their performance and I’m looking forward to the third and fourth place game. We will try to get the players to psyche up so that we can at least get a bronze,” he said.
On their path to the semi-final the Zimbabwe women beat Botswana 72-28. The men’s team thrashed Malawi 108-46 on Saturday.
On Monday, the Zimbabwean ladies team outgunned Lesotho 137-18 before they narrowly lost to Angola 46-50. The men’s team beat South Africa 62-51 before making light work of Swaziland 116-31.
The South African ladies team comes to the third and fourth place play-off a wounded lion and is out to revenge their 74-72 loss they suffered to Zimbabwe on Thursday.
The Angola teams had height advantage as well as speed in both games and at the end of the game they were the better side.
Results
Women: Mozambique 83, Zimbabwe 43; Angola 62, South Africa 31
Men: Mozambique 70, Zimbabwe 57
Fixtures
Men and Women: Mozambique vs Angola
Third and Fourth place play off
Men and Women: South Africa vs Zimbabwe
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