The Uganda U18 Women’s team, the Junior Gazelles, closed their group campaign with an 86-43 victory over the Central African Republic. This was a statement win and it will heavily impact on who gets to finish where and the quarterfinal matchups.

Ahead of this game, Uganda had fallen to the hosts, Cote d’Ivoire 80-44 in their previous game. However, a win against Kenya in their opening game had put them in a nice spot and qualification to the quarterfinals was on the horizon.

They were up against a Central African Republic team who had yet to win a game in the tournament and anything short of a victory for Uganda would have been shocking. Uganda was also in mathematics and they had to make sure that they get a high points difference.

In the first quarter of the game, Central African Republic put up a fight. Uganda led the game 15-8 but the game was not as smooth as they had hoped. The Central Africans were putting up resistance.

All that changed in the second quarter as Uganda blew them out. Uganda scored 32 points in the quarter compared to CAR’s 12. However, at the start of the quarter, CAR had scored back-to-back baskets and kept Uganda scoreless for more than 2 minutes. The floodgates for Uganda opened shortly after and they never looked back.

Uganda forced CAR into 22 turnovers in the second quarter alone and as a result, they scored 25 points from turnovers. Heading into the halftime break, Uganda led the game 47-20 and they were on their way to victory.

In the second half, Uganda made some rotations but still applied the pressure. They wanted to score as many as they could and in the end, they won the game 86-43.

Top performers

Melissa Taliba registered a big double-double, 22 points, 13 rebounds and 7 steals.  Rose Musundi also registered a double-double with 22 points, 13 steals, 8 assists and 5 rebounds. Vanessa Grace Nakalembe was just shy of a triple-double. She had 13 steals, 10 rebounds, 9 assists and 8 points.

Mary Hazel Ssengedo also came up hige with 16 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 6 steals. Josephine Aminat registered 14 rebounds while Olivia Atima had 8 points and 7 rebounds.

Despite getting big win, Uganda will be very disappointed in their free throw conversion. They missed 26 of 56 attempts and this problem is a repeat if what happened against Cote d’Ivoire.

Quarterfinals

The quarterfinal teams will be ranked from 1-8 and a playoff bracket format will be used. The top teams in each pool will finish 1-3 while the number 2 teams will be 4-6. The final best 3rd place teams will occupy the 7th and 8th position.

Uganda finished second in the pool and will be between 4-6. They have more points differential than Nigeria and that means they will finish above them. The game between mali and Egypt will determine a lot. If Mali win by a margin less than 66, Egypt will rank as number 4 while Uganda will be 5 and the 2 shall meet. If Egypt win against Mali, Uganda will face Mali in the quarterfinals.  Who wouls Uganda rather they face?

The quarterfinal games shall be played on Wednesday 12th August but in the meantime, Uganda will await their opponent.