ZIMBABWE has crashed out of the Afro-Basket Women Fiba World Championship tournament in Mozambique after losing their entire Group A matches at the Maxaquene Gym.
Fortune Mbele Sports Reporter
The national women’s team’s latest loss was to Ivory Coast on Wednesday where they fell 66-50.
Their first loss was last Saturday when they were edged by Algeria 66-73 after they arrived late for the tournament and could not play their opening match on Friday against Mozambique.
They were then hammered by the hosts Mozambique 117-28 in the postponed match on Sunday before another 123-45 thumping by Senegal on Monday.
On Tuesday they were beaten 85-55 by Egypt before the last match against Ivory Coast on Wednesday.
After the drubbing by Mozambique on Sunday, the national team coach Sikhumbuzo Ndlovu was already pessimistic about the team’s progress in the tournament.
“It will be very difficult to say how far we can go. When we came here, we knew it was going to be very tough playing against Mozambique, Senegal and Ivory Coast. They are very experienced compared to us. We thought about our chances against Algeria and Egypt.”
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“They (Mozambique) were much better than us, especially since they complement each other extremely well. We did what we could, but our transition was slow. This is the first time we are participating in the Afro-Basket. It is a learning process. We’ll do much better than what we have done this time. Against Algeria, we could have come out with a good result if it was not our late arrival. We savour the joy of taking part in the tournament,” Ndlovu said on the Fiba website.
