Hilma Nalupe 

The FIBA Women’s Basketball League Africa qualifiers for Group E are happening from today until 9 November at the Deutsche Höhere Privatschule Windhoek (DHPS), with Namibia’s Unam Phoenix, Angola’s SC de Luanda, and Malawi’s BH Ladies being the only three teams in the group. 

Assistant coach of the Unam Phoenix, Allan Nghixulifwa, said the ladies are beyond excited and they have been looking forward to an opportunity to compete internationally. 

“The ladies have been putting in the work and preparing extensively for the qualifiers. The Phoenixes are the Namibian basketball league champions for four years in a row, and they have been looking forward to the challenge,” Nghixulifwa said. 

The team has a lot of young players, which makes it one of their strengths, as it allows them to keep up with the other teams in the qualifiers. 

Nghixulifwa said his team will try not to give away any easy points to SC de Luanda by ensuring to play smart and being on defence. 

“With Angola, you must be smart. We will try by all means not to give them easy points. Whatever chances we miss offensively, we must get back on defence. They are a very good transition team, and we need to keep up defensively,” said the coach. 

With Namibia hosting its first basketball event of this magnitude, Nghixulifwa hopes the ladies will compete and win at least one match to secure their spot in the African Women’s Basketball League in Egypt. 

“There are only two spots available, and with Namibia being one of the three teams competing, the competition has been narrowed, and we can surely take one of the spots.” -hilmanalupe@gmail.com