It was a bad day for Kenya at day 4 , on Tuesday during the ongoing Africa Wheelchair Basketball Championships in Luanda, Angola when the national 5×5 women’s team lost their last contention game 22-14 against Morocco and the men 92-27, against the same country, their only hope for advancing to the elimination stages.
Speaking on Tuesday evening after the men’s game from the match venue, Pavilaho De Kilamba, women’s head coach Sarah Libese remained upbeat with the future, emphasizing that Kenya is building a young squad for tomorrow.
” We dint do that well, but we have also picked some positives as we head back home. We have a pretty young squad that needs to be integrated with the seniors,” said Libese adding that she has a lot of work to do with the national team once they jet back to Nairobi.
The ladies still had an opportunity to surge to the quarter finals, despite losing three back to back games after beating Liberia in their tournament opener.
Kenya lost against hosts Angola next, then Algeria and South Africa, and sadly on Tuesday against Morocco, their only hope for survival in the tourney which was blown to the wind.
Libese’s charges started out strong , but ended on a low tone, losing their last two quarters after half time when Morocco’s tactician Abdellah Dawdi took a gamble with high ponter Aicha Draoui, Guard Ilham Sabraoui, low pointer Hasna El Aoung and Guard Mina Saidassalam, changes that Kenya could not handle despite having the brilliance of best shooter Esther Asige , low pointer Christine Mutheu and captain Beth Wanja who played as Guard, losing the entire game 22-14.
Kenya’s men also would be given an opportunity to redeem themselves, but against top ranked Morocco, similar opponents to Algeria who on Sunday had beaten Kenya 68-27, this time round a fight for life that would see Kenya eventually losing the tie 92-27, a dominant stamped authority from the north Africans.
The Africa 5×5 wheelchair basketball championships in Luanda, Angola will be concluded on Thursday, with the champions of both women and men grabbing a direct ticket to the 2026 International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) World Championships in Ottawa, Canada this September.
Kenya earlier on begun their Angola tour with the 3×3 championships but fell out on the semifinals for both men and women at the same venue, hence a chance to the 2026 Glasgow Commonwealth Games in June.
Kenya’s teams have now been left with a game each on Wednesday, to fight for the fifth and sixth place finish, games only played for rankings, and not for titles.
The contingent headed by team manager Joseph Ochieng, who is also the head of delegation, is coming back home on Friday , head high and with pride, promising a strong comeback, after picking out positives that have great lessons in them.
