Gazelles are Finals Bound: Afrobasket Qualifiers

Uganda secured a place in the final after defeating Burundi 66-30 in their final group game. They will face off against Egypt in a heated rematch.

Avitus Ngabirano

February 7, 2025

1–2 minutes

Burundi, FIBA Women’s Afrobasket Zone V Qualifiers, Gazelles, uganda

The Gazelles will play in the finals at the FIBA Women’s Afrobasket Zone V Qualifiers and this comes after they won their final round-robin game, 30-66 against Burundi on Thursday 6th February.

With this victory, this Uganda had a 3-1 record and was awaiting the result of the game between South Sudan and Egypt to confirm their place in the finals.

Egypt won their game 85-64, and this result meant that Uganda and Egypt would play in the finals to determine who qualifies for the Afrobasket.

In a surprising start to the game, Burundi led 17-14 after the first quarter and for a moment, this cast some seeds of doubt in some Ugandan fans.

However, the Gazelles took over in the second quarter and upped their defensive game.

They limited Burundi to just 4 points in the second quarter and took an 8-point lead at the halftime break.

The same defense continued in the second half limiting Burundi to just 9 points in 20 minutes and Uganda managed to seal the game 30-66.

The Gazelles made a couple of rotations and each player was involved for a reasonable amount of time.

Bushira Namayanja, Modesta Anyango, and Shillah Lamunu all came off the bench and scored their first points as members of the senior team.

For the first time in the tournament, no Ugandan player played for 30+ minutes and the highest was 28 minutes by Paige Robinson.