Sports

YAOUNDE (AfroBasket Women 2015) - Cameroon are through to the Final of AfroBasket Women 2015 after beating Nigeria 71-70 in Friday's first Semi-Final in Yaounde, Cameroon.

Amina Njonkou and Ramses Lonlack combined for 34 points as Cameroon secured at least a place at next year's FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying  Tournament (WOQT).

It was Cameroon's seventh win in as many games.

Turning Point: Njonkou made a lay-up with 28 seconds remaining and Cameroon, having trailed for most of the game, went on to upset Nigeria who were aiming to return to the Final for the first time since 2005. Joyce Ekworomadu missed a jumper in the waning seconds of the game, sending home fans into frenzy.   

Stats Don't Lie: Two key Nigeria players, Ndidi Madu and Olayinka Sanni, fouled out midway through the fourth quarter, and Nigeria were never the same near the painted area.

Game Hero: Njonkou not only provided 14 crucial points, but she also dominated the paint with a game-high 16 rebounds.

Bottom Line: The result go either way, but Cameroon, boosted by a tireless supporting crowd, handled the game better in the final minutes, and will play the tournament final for the very first time.

Adaora Elonu who led Nigeria with 17 points said after the game: "A lot of things went wrong tonight. We weren't executing and they were scoring too many points. They were getting what they needed, and we let them have energy and feel from the crowd, which was bad for us."

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Ngwa Bertrand

02.Oct.2015

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Cameroon has recorded her third straight victory at the ongoing 24th edition of the 2015 AfroBasket Women in Yaounde, Cameroon. The basket Lionesses made their first record after beating Uganda 86-34 on Saturday 26th September 2015. In day 4 of the competition Cameroon held hands with the women from Gabon during her fourth debut in the competition hosted in Cameroon, at the Yaounde Multipurpose Sports Complex.

A difficult moment for the two teams as the Indomitable Lionesses and the Gabonese ladies with a long history in basketball exhibited strong and brilliant moves during the game. The captain of the Cameroon Basket Women, Amina Njounkou alongside Priscillia Mbiandja, Ramses Lonlack, Silo Gano who all participated in past editions of the jamboree, were unparalleled and matchless. 

During the first two sets of the match, the Lionesses recorded 46.6 percent as opposed to the 41.7 by Gabon, 33.3 for Cameroon and Gabon 31.0 during the third set. At the level of the defence Line, the lionesses made a record of 28.3 per cent with 14.0 for the rebound while the panthers of Gabon registered 27.0. Cameroon inspirational player, Ramses Lonlack whom bookmakers say is making a superior stance at the competition has definitely won hearts of her local fans.

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Ngwa Bertrand

30.Sep.2015

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The Joseph Owona gang has skilfully installed a CPDM team to run the affairs of the Cameroon Football Federation. Tombi A Roko whose passport was confiscated by immigration officers at the Douala International airport and was prevented from travelling to Equatorial Guinea during the Africa Cup of Nations following a Prime Ministerial Order, by some strange happenstance is now the new president.

An adviser to the disgraced former president of the Cameroon Football Federation, Iya Mohammed, CPDM Senator from the North region, Alioum Aladji is the first vice-president of FECAFOOT. Another CPDM Senator this time around from the South West region, Charles Mbella Moki is the second vice-president. 

The executive of FECAFOOT is essentially composed of corrupt officials of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate as the 3rd Vice President; Luc Nkoa is also a CPDM parliamentarian from the Central region. Joseph Pierre Batamack, an ardent CPDM loyalist and president of the Littoral region’s football league is now FECAFOOT’s 4th vice president.

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Ngwa Bertrand

29.Sep.2015

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Twenty years after Bernard Tapie sold his share in sportwear giant Adidas, lawyers for the French tycoon asked Tuesday for more than €1 billion in damages over the deal, reopening a longstanding legal feud with the now-defunct bank Crédit Lyonnais. The case comes after a court ruled on February 17 to nullify a controversial €400 million state payout ordered by an arbitration panel in 2008 for Tapie, a former politician and businessman, over the 1993 sale of the sportswear company. The arbitration panel had upheld Tapie's claim that Crédit Lyonnais had defrauded him by intentionally undervaluing Adidas at the time of the sale, and that the state – as the bank's principal shareholder – should compensate him.

In her role at the time as French finance minister under former president Nicolas Sarkozy, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde ordered the case to be heard by an arbitration panel instead of proceeding through the regular courts. Some have alleged that Lagarde granted Tapie, a Socialist, preferential treatment by referring the matter to arbitration in exchange for his financial support for Sarkozy in his 2007 presidential bid. Lagarde has always denied any wrongdoing and earlier this month France’s top prosecutor general recommended that charges of negligence against her be dropped. Critics argue that the state should not have paid compensation to a convicted criminal who was bankrupt at the time and would not have been able to pursue the case in court. 

Tapie spent six months in prison in 1997 for match-fixing during his time as president of France's biggest football club, Olympique Marseille. Tapie was placed under formal investigation for committing fraud as part of an organised gang in late June of 2013. That same year, a French court ordered the seizure of Tapie's assets worth tens of millions of euros, including a luxury villa on the French Mediterranean coast. “I didn’t realise I live in a country where people are executed before they are sentenced,” Tapie said at the time in an interview with French TV channel iTele. Tapie is now set to reopen the case, known in France as the “Tapie Affair”. His lawyer, Emmanuel Gaillard, said that he has documents proving that the sale of Adidas by Crédit Lyonnais was “premeditated”. Crédit Lyonnais, now part of Crédit Agricole, has previously denied any wrongdoing.

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Ngwa Bertrand

29.Sep.2015

Hits: 2057