Hilma Nalupe

The Namibia Basketball Federation (NBF) hosted the FIBA Women’s Basketball League Africa qualifiers last weekend in Windhoek, with only three teams participating in Group E of southern Africa: Namibia’s Unam Phoenix, Angola’s Sporting Clube de Luanda and Malawi’s Bravehearts.

Friday evening saw Unam Phoenix defeated 98-52 in a tough encounter with Sporting Clube de Luanda.

On Saturday evening, Sporting Clube de Luanda secured yet another win against Bravehearts, 83-55, ensuring their qualification for the finals, which will take place in Egypt.Sporting Clube de Luanda head coach Cristavao de Oliveira said the competition was not what they expected, but they are satisfied with the results. 

“We thought we would find more competition, but we are happy nonetheless. With the formation that we have, we know the competition will be very difficult at the finals, but we will train hard and surpass the other teams,” de Oliveira said.

Having narrowly defeated Unam Phoenix 58-55 in a highly contested match, Malawi’s Bravehearts have earned a spot at the finals, following Angola. 

Speaking after their win against the Namibian team Bravehearts coach Dominic Munyenyembe described their match against Namibia as very competitive and described it as an improvement for women’s basketball in Africa. Heading into the finals, Bravehearts plan to work hard and vow to be ready to compete when the time comes. Although the Unam Phoenix did not qualify for the basketball Africa finals, they came extremely close in their match against Bravehearts. 

The Phoenix went from nearly ten points behind the Bravehearts in the second quarter to narrowing the gap from the third quarter with less than five points between the two teams as the match progressed.

Melusi Linda, head coach of Unam Phoenix, said his team is still growing and filled with many youngsters, who are determined and have made him proud in the qualifiers. 

“I am proud of the girls, although the first match did not go well. They tried their best in the second match and nearly won,” he said. 

-hilmanalupe@gmail.com