Libya Holds Off Uganda 69-66 in Thrilling Finale, Finishes AfroBasket Qualifiers on a High

Libya Holds Off Uganda 69-66 in Thrilling Finale, Finishes AfroBasket Qualifiers on a High

Hosts Libya had the backing of the entire arena as they played Uganda in the final Group B  AfroBasket Qualifiers clash, the enthusiastic crowd pushing their team to a 69-66 win.

Both sides came into the game under no pressure all teams in the Group were already qualified.

After Uganda led 21-20 in the opening quarter, Libya came back for the second quarter guns blazing, going on a 24-11 run that took them 12 points ahead at half time. Uganda fought hard to take the second half stanzas 16-9 and 18-16 but it was too little, too late.

Basem Albebas scored eight of his 13 points in the last quarter to seal the victory for the hosts who finished on 10 points, one ahead of Cape Verde and Nigeria who finished tied on nine. Uganda finished last, qualifying as the best-placed fourth team

Naseim Ismail Salem Badrush led the scoring for the North Africans, scoring 17 and coming within two assists of a rare double-double.

"We took this competition one match at a time and I am grateful to everyone that put in the work for us to achieve this," Naseim Ismail Salem, Libya guard, said after the match.

Libya remained solid on defense, despite Uganda coming close on several occasions. They seemed to have figured a way to shut down two of Uganda's best players, Robinson Opong and Ishmail Wainwright, restricting them to nine and eight points respectively.

The charge for victory was led by Deng John Geu who scored 25, pulling down eight boards. His solo efforts, however, fell short.

"We tried our best to compete. We came in a bit flat in the first half. We were not executing defensively as we should have. In the second half we had a better third quarter with better intensity and we managed to come back but we could not hold on for victory," Robinson Opong, Uganda shooting guard.

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[Photography Courtesy of FIBA]