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Ons gee nooit op nie

A lot of happy faces during Friday night's press converence in Johannesburg, and we don't need to explain to you why...do we? With many journalists from all over the country it was more crowded comapred to the previous 4 weeks, with a win on Monday against Egypt the team will almost be certain to qualify for the second stage of the AfroBasket tournement

The first question the coach got tonight was if he could take us back to the last couple of minutes of the game against Algeria.

''Met minder as 3 minute op die klok, ek het gedink die wedstryd is gespeel. Maar die gevegsgees het ons teruggebring, dit is iets wat ek aan die spelers gesê het wat ons nooit moet opgee nie. As ons so kan voortgaan, sal baie spanne hul hande vol hê as hulle ons speel.''

With 2 wins and 2 defeats and just the bottom 3 teams remainig in the schedule it's just a matter of time for the team to officially qualify for the second round. Right now the team is in 5th place and a top 4 finish at the end of the second round is possible, do you think this team is capable of doing that?

''Ons is nou baie naby, maar ons weet dit van die hand na die mond die pap op die grond kan val. Jy kan dink dis 'n stukkie koek vir ons, maar moenie jou kuikens tel voor jy nie weet of die henne van die haan hou nie. Een wedstryd op 'n slag, niks meer niks minder nie''

The team is 2-2 right now with a -20 points differential, sitting at a 5th place South Africa will climb to a minimum of 4th place if the team wins against Egypt, since Algeria and Ghana will play against eachother both with a 2-2 record. This is a perfect situation to continue our winning streak, and extent it to 3 games. We will try to have a posstive points differential after the match, maybe this will be something that becomes important later on in the tournement. Suid-Afrika is die groot gunsteling vir sy kragmeting Maandag in Algerië teen Egipte, dit is so duidelyk soos daglig.

Prediction
South Africa wins by 21 points

South Africa garnered their third win in a row by disposing Egypt 117-90 in season 43 of the Africa Championship Tournament hosted in Algeria.

Motsoaledi lead the South Africans in scoring to the tune of 21 points on 8 of 15 shooting, but the real game-changers were their starting big men who dominated the boards and provided the much needed scoring oomph they badly needed. Umi Mji corralled seventeen boards and frontcourt partner Lekgwathi had twelve. Both stalwarts combined to add 32 points into the scoreboard as South Africa never looked back after the ending the first half with a comfortable nineteen point cushion, 66 - 47. Even though the bench was emptied by the start of the final canto South Africa was still able to hold off the Egyptians, even inflate it to as much as thirty points before a late rally narrowed down the scoreline.

Egypt was lead by Hussein Al-Abir's 19 points as all five Egyptian starters scored in double-digits. Center Afridi Askari also had 10 points and ten rebounds.

South Africa is still within a shout of the next round as it rallied past Ghana for the fourth spot in the standings. The team will face of with 95th ranked Tunisia next week. Stay tuned.



Scores:
Egypt (90)
H. Al-Abir 19, N. Al-Amin 17, Z. Ahmed 14, M. Muthanna 14, A. Askari 10, H. Shareef 6, H. El-Amin 5, F. Sulaiman 3, J. Al-Yousef 2, A. Tibi DNP-CD, S. Abed-Saleh DNP-CD, A. Musa DNP-CD

South Africa (117)
P. Motsoaledi 21, U. Mji 17, S. Lekgwathi 15, S. Mbatha 14, S. Fazzie 12, N. Mabuza 12, G. Tefu 12, R. Hlomelang 9, M. Cebekhului 3, T. Naidoo 2, T. Kalaka 0, E. Stewart DNP-CD

Quarters:
30-24; 66-47; 93-70; 117-90

Last edited by Pro_Shot 🇵🇭 at 8/28/2018 3:06:40 AM

Way to go!

Dis'n toets wat eenvoudig gewen móét word

We are happy with the results and the situation we are in right now, having qualified for the second round the pressure is off and everybody is more relax compared to 3 or 4 weeks ago. We feel confident going into our game with Tunisia, we won comfortable against Egypt last week and we expect a similar result this week. Een joernalis het gevra tydens die perskonferensie of sommige van die spelers rustyd sal kry, of as die span 'n paar nuwe taktieke sal uitprobeer.

''Ons sal hou by die manier waarop ons gespeel het, nie een van die spelers sal rus kry nie, tensy hulle beseer is of 'n slegte spelvorm het. Ek weet ons moet met 'n gemaklike marge wen, maar ons wil so min as moontlik verander.''

With Nigeria and Senegal well ahead of the rest, the game against Morocco next week will be crucial. What are you telling your players to stay focussed for the game against Tunisia?

''Ek sê altyd dat ons elke teenstander ernstig neem en ons moet nie na 'n wedstryd kyk as dit nie ons volgende wedstryd is nie. Maar om jou vraag te beantwoord, ons moet op sy beste speel volgende week teen Marokko, aangesien hulle in dieselfde posisie as ons is. Al wat ek kan sê is n'sakkie vol selfvertroue kan wondere verrig.''

Also we would like to thank Pro_Shot for his contribution to the National Team, we hope that he will continue to be part of our team. Maraming salamat!

Prediction
South Africa wins by 24 points

2 good wins over Egypt (+27) then Tunisia (+36), but each time by trying harder than the opponent.
I think it was not necessary and I am afraid that next round will be difficult due to a lack of enthusiasm.

Previews and post-game reports are interesting. Keep it up! ;)

First of all thank you for making the effort to look at our NT, I'm happy to see reactions and interaction for South African managers regarding the NT! I'm doing everything I can to make the team better, I mentioned in my election speech on what would be my approach. So I hope nobody is disappointed that I'm doing unexpecting things right now... ;)
The most important is to keep a close eye on the NT and not make any mistakes, be stable and make a steady progress.
One of my goals was to get the South African community more involved and active, and looking at it right now it seems to be going the right way.

I don't have a problem in listening to people who maybe have a different opinion, as I told you I would be glad to listen and talk about it. But I hope you agree and feel that the team is going the right direction and progress has been made, I'm not done yet as I would love to continue to lead the NT if given the opportunity. But also at the same time I think there has been little to complain about so far to be fair. I like the fact that you actually speak up and let me know what you think, you could also what I mentioned more than once send me a BB-mail. But this is up to you ofcourse :)

As the NT coach I'm also keeping an eye on the U21 team, and it sort of bothers me to see what has happened and is happening with it right now. Also nobody made any post on the forum regarding the U21 team, it seems like nobody cares about it. Hopefully, and I have confidence that the next U21 coach will be a lot more commited and motivated to do his job.

I will go talk about your comment about enthusiasm and my tactics, GDP & motivation in my next preview. Also I would like to repeat that every managers is more than welcome to send me a BB-mail about any questions etc. I will be more than happy to reply to it, and hear everyones opinion.

You're doing a great job, but please don't be too sensitive.
I think Ebene know the game well and his question is relevant.
Anyway good luck in the next round!

South Africa vs. Tounes 129 - 93 (47362)

An impressive win against Tunisia last Monday in the AfroBasket tournement, this extents South Africa's winning streak to 4.
The predicted winning margin was set at 24 points, but at the end of the match the margin was 36 points which means 12 points more than we expected. The team was in control from start to finish, with the right strategy and lineup Tunisia didn't stand a chance. Our shooting percentage was as high as 65% (52/80) with 34 total assists (28 against Egypt last week).
South Africa had a rebound advantage of 4, this seems small but concidered our 3-2 defense compared to Tunisa's 2-3 this is kind of impressive. If we can continue like this we have a good chance of finishing in the top 4 in the second stage of the tournement.

Die druk is by Marokko, ons voel goed of kanse om die halfeindstryd te bereik. In die perskonferensie oor die wedstryd teen Marokko sal ek verduidelik wat ons plan is. Danksy al ons aanhangers en die mense wat in ons glo, sal ons jou nie teleurstel nie!

Man of the match:
Sigidi Mbatha
18 points & 13 assists

The scores:
South Africa (129)
Lekgwathi 24, Kalaka 19, Mbatha 18, Tefu 14, Mji 12, Qaba 12, Fazzie 10, Mabuza 8, Cebekhului 8, Steward 2, Hlomelang 2, Naidoo 0.

Tunisia (93)
Aouadi 21, Shirazisiddiq 16, Hachadi 16, Dhaoui 15, El Hadden 13, Baji 6, Bensala 4, Jait 2, Solhi 0.

Ons moet onvoorspelbaar wees en bly

The last match in the first phase of the AfroBasket tournement will be played tomorrow, South Africa will play against Morocco for a battle of 3rd place. With good results against Egypt and Tunisia the team is confident to play well again against one of the toughest teams, we certainly see chances to continue our winning streak to 5.

We got some questions about playing with normal motivation against Tunisia and Egypt the two previous weeks, besides this comment there were no other complaints regarding our strategy and lineup.

''ons het geweet ons was die gunstelinge teen Egipte en Tunisië, maar ons wou die manier waarop ons dit beplan het, voortgaan voor die toernooi begin het. Die span het 'n belangrike voordeel in vergelyking met die meeste ander spanne in Afrika, en dit is onvoorspelbaar wees. Byvoorbeeld, Algerië is sterk om buite aanval te speel, maar hul binnekant is baie swak. En dit geld ook vir Marokko, hulle is baie sterk binne, maar hulle buitekant is een van die swakste. Daarom is dit baie belangrik om onvoorspelbaar te wees en te bly, nou en in die toekoms.''

Another journalist asked what would be the strategy tomorrow against Morocco, and how does the coach see his chances against the team that has the same record as South Africa right now.

''Ek hoef nie geheimsinnig te wees nie, ons ken hul krag en swakhede. Hulle sal binnekant speel, hul groot man is een van die beste in Afrika. Die spelvorm van hul sterspelers is baie hoog, en as ons 'n kans wil hê, moet ons hulle beperk om baie punte te verdien. Ons het van al hul vorige wedstryde gesien dat hul point guard en shooting guard amper geen skote neem nie. Ons strategie sal 2-3 verdediging wees, hopelik sal dit genoeg wees. Ons aanval strategie sal 'n geheim bly, anders sal ons ons grootste voordeel weggooi.''

Prediction
Morocco wins by 7 points

South Africa vs. Al Maghrib 82-103(47365)

With a score of 42-42 things look promising, but unfortunately the second half was less impressive from our side while Morocco played at their best. The team simply missed too many shots (32/90) compared to (46/86), in almost all other categories we also came up short, only at 3 point shots we had the upperhand. The lack of gameshape of our substitutes was simply not good enough, and it shows in the stats. Also the stamina for the players on those positions was too low, this is something I will try to fix for the future so we won't run into the same problem again.

Right now we have to focus on the end result of the AfroBasket tournement, our finishing position. It's gonna be a tough 2nd phase but we can manage it. If we all put in some effort our chances of getting the result we aim for are realistic, we should not feel discouraged by one defeat. We still have a minimum of 5 matches left to play, and our goal is to win 2 of them. Ek dink ons kan ons resultate verbeter, en met die ondersteuning en toewyding van sommige afrigters sal ons dit doen.Maak asseblief 'n poging om jou spelers beter te maak, eers dan kan ons beter en sterker word.

Man of the match:
Mabhoko Cebekhului
14 points & 13 rebounds

The scores:
South Africa (82)
Fazzie 20, Lekgwathi 18, Cebekhului 14, Mji 10, Mabuza 10, Mbatha 8, Tefu 2, Baloyi 0, Hlomelang DNP-CD, Qaba DNP-CD, Tsenoli DNP-CD, Kalaka DNP-CD.

Morocco (103)
Ali 29, Ibn-Nabil 17, Sterzik 15, Haj-Saleh 10, Sulaiman 8, Junajyd 7, Ibrahim 7, Rais 6, Musa 2, Muthanna 2, Mansoury DNP-CD.