Junior Gazelles fall to Egypt in the quarterfinals: U18 Afrobasket

The Junior Gazelles missed out on an opportunity of making it to back-to-back semifinals after falling to Egypt 80-50 in the quarterfinals.

Avitus Ngabirano

August 13, 2026

2–3 minutes

FIBA U18 Afrobasket, Junior Gazelles

The Uganda U18 Women’s team fell to Egypt 80:50 in the quarterfinals of the 2026 FIBA U18 Women’s Afrobasket. The Junior Gazelles missed out on making it back-to-back semifinal appearances for Uganda at the tournament.

Coming into the game, Uganda had finished second in pool A with 2 wins and 1 loss. Their opponents had a similar record, 2-1, from the group games. However, Egypt were the favorites coming into the game.

Competitive first half

The game was slightly competitive in the first half. Egypt opened the game with a 7-0 run and led by as many as 8 points. Uganda then managed to come back to within 1 point but the North Africans scored the final 5 points in the first quarter to end the game 23-17.

Egypt had a very good second quarter and they managed to stretch the lead to 13 points. 12 of their 20 points in the quarter came from the 3-point line. However, Uganda was competitive in the first 5 minutes but the Egyptians slowly pulled away. At the halftime break, they led the game 43-30.

Egypt pulling away

To start the second half, Uganda was still in the game but the Egyptians slowly started to pull away. They made a 10-0 run to extend their lead to 21 points and things were looking bad for Uganda. Brandina Kyalimpa scored 2 big 3-point shots for Uganda at the end of the quarter but Egypt led the game 63-41.

Only time was between them and the semifinal place at this point. Egypt continued to wreak havoc against Uganda in the fourth quarter and they won the game 80-50.

Mary Hazel Ssengendo in action for Uganda against Egypt in the quarter-finals

Talking Points

Uganda allowed Egypt to score very many points in transition. On the other hand, Uganda had to fight to score any point. Even when you look at the 3-point shots, Egypt made 10 compared to Uganda’s 4, but the majority of them were open shots.

Top performers

Melissa Taliba was the top performer for Uganda with 8 points and 10 rebounds. Brandina Kyalimpa and Maria Nanyonga each had 8 points and 2 3-point shots made while Rose Musundi and Mary Hazel Ssengendo each had 7 rebounds plus 7 and 6 points respectively.

Classification games

Uganda will face Kenya in the classification games as they seek a 5th place finish. If they go past Kenya, they will face the winner between Cameroon and Tunisia.

Uganda vs Kenya 14th August, 16:00 EAT