JOHANSBURG (FIBA Africa Zone 6 Qualifiers) - Exactly 7 days ago the Men and Women's senior national basketball teams boarded a bus to Harare, Zimbabwe for the Zone 6 All Africa Games and African Nations Cup qualifiers.
The bus departed immediately after the Professional Basketball League final between the Soweto Panthers and the Kwazulu Marlins, where 9 of the 12 national team players were playing.
Selected for the SA Men's squad are Quinton Denyssen, Nhlanhla Dlamini, Kenneth Motaung, Thabang Kgwedi, Lesego Molebatsi, Neo Mothiba and Thabo Letsebe from the Soweto Panthers.
Lowell Mndaweni and Vusi Dlamini join the squad from the Kwazulu Marlins. The other three members of the national team are Joseph Mazibuko and Sifiso Ngcobo from the Egoli Magic and Nyakallo Nthuping from the Tshwane Suns.
This team has performed admirably thus far in the qualifiers where the top team will represent Zone 6 in both the African Championships taking place in Angola in August and the All Africa Games which will be hosted by Algeria in September.
A lot of that has to do with the fact that the players have just ended their first professional season in over 9 years. Playing competitive basketball week in and week out has helped the Men's National team stay undefeated in their first three games in Harare.
The first game the SA Men played on the Wednesday the 28th of February was against Malawi who they blew out by 64 points off of a huge 19 point performance by Sifiso Ngcobo, who led South Africa in scoring.
Quintin Denyssen had 17 points, Neo Mothiba 16 points, Thabang Kgwedi added 15 points and Joseph Mazibuko dished out a game high 10 assists.
South Africa shot an awesome 64% from the field and out rebounded Malawi 60 to 25 as a team and limited Malawi to a paltry 21% shooting percentage.
The final score was 108-44.
The next game the Senior Men's team played was on the 1st of March against a confident Zimbabwe, who had home court advantage and flew in Elijah Moyo from Philidelphia College in the United States.
South Africa ended up winning the game by 3 points, 81 to 78. S.A.'s Neo Mothiba came out blazing as he scored a game high 22 points and was 8 for 13 from the field on the day.
He was assisted on the offensive end by Quinitin Denyssen who dropped 15 points in the 33 minutes he was on the floor. Lesego Molebatsi controlled the boards for SA with his 15 rebound and 11 point performance.
Even though SA shot well from the field, hitting 28 of their 53 shots, poor free throw shooting (66%) and turnovers (35 against Zimbabwe) almost cost South Africa the game.
In their third game on Friday the 2nd of March the S.A. men beat Zambia by 20, 97-77.
South Africa and Mozambique are currently tied at number one in the Men's group with 6 points each. Zimbabwe is second with 5 points, Zambia has 4 points and Malawi is at the bottom with 3 points. S.A. will play Mozambique on Saturday the 3rd of March at 20:00 to decide who will represent Zone 6 at the All Africa Games and the African Championships.
The last time these two teams played each other in 2005 in Maputo, South Africa won.
So Mozambique will be looking to get revenge while South Africa will be hoping to cement their position as the second best team in Zone 6 behind Angola.
Angola didn't participate in the Zone 6 qualifiers because they automatically qualify for both tournaments as defending 2005 African Champions and as hosts.
In the Women's qualifiers, the S.A. women, who haven't played competitive basketball since last year had a much tougher time against their Zone 6 rivals.
They have only won one game against Zambia, the whipping girls of the tournament, 105-69.
The S.A. ladies lost 91-42 to Angola and 82-60 to our neighbors Mozambique. Angola is on top of the Women's group with 7 points, and has already qualified to represent zone 6 after thrashing Zambia 136-39 yesterday.
They are followed by Mozambique in second place with 6 points, Zimbabwe and South Africa both have 4 points and Malawi is below sea level with 3 points.
The South African Women's next game is against Zimbabwe at 18:00 on Saturday the 3rd of March.
I spoke to Quintin Denyssen from Zimbabwe who said that "this is one of the best tournaments I have ever been on.
Everything is normal in Zimbabwe. We're athletes, so we've been treated very well over hear." The SA team will be heading home after their game at midnight tonight on the bus.
Tshepo Ditshego
FIBA Official Correspondent in South Africa
