Moment of truth as Lionesses take hosts Egypt in AfroBasket qualifiers

The Egyptians have already qualified for the final game against Uganda, whose winner punches the ticket to represent the zone in the continental showdown in Abidjan Ivory Coast later this year.

George Mayienga’s outfit have had a lacklustre campaign even by their standards having lost their opening two matches of the qualifiers to Uganda and South Sudan.

The Egyptians on the other hand are unbeaten, winning their matches convincingly to stay ahead of the rest of the pack. 

Coach Mayienga has expressed confidence in his side’s ability to fairly compete against the 38th ranked nation in the sport.

This will be their 11th match-up, with the North African side winning seven out of the 10 so far, Kenya’s last dub coming in 2021.

"We’ll watch them, and we know this is their home court but we`re of course ready for any challenge, but I respect them as a team, as competitors, but let`s see what happens," said Mayienga.

Center Raneem Elgedawy, is undoubtedly the Egyptians` best asset, tallying 20.0 points while grabbing 10 boards a game. Her dominance in the paint will be a matchup to look forward to against Kenya’s best rebounder Mercy Wanyama, who's putting up 6.7 rebounds helping her team control the paint even in the games they lost.

Elgedawy boasts of a great supporting cast with the likes of Nadine Mohammed and Hala Elshaarawy, whom Coach Amr Elmaraghy has fielded for different looks in the games. 

For the Lionesses, Victoria Reynolds has been stellar; second in the scoring leader board, just 16 points off Uganda’s Jane Asine who is ahead with a total of 70.

Cutting down the turnovers would be a game changer as was the evidence in their win against Burundi, although they still did turn it over.

The Lionesses will have to be able to clean up the boards as a team whilst also being efficient in their shot selections in order for them to make it a game.