NAIROBI, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Kenya dismissed South Sudan 74-68 in a close contest to secure their place in the second round of the Afro Basketball 2021 qualifiers in Nairobi on Sunday.
The triumphant Kenyan team, nicknamed Morans, gave their home fans a reason to smile as they won the bragging rights against their long-time rivals and Africa Zone Five rivals South Sudan in a six-nation competition, whose curtains felled on Sunday in Nairobi.
Kenyan coach Cliff Owuor said his team hopes to live the dream to make their debut show at the 2021 Afro Basketball in Kigali, Rwanda.
"We talked as a team to deny them (South Sudan) the ball and control the boards. Stop their execution and that was it. We are happy to qualify for the next round," said Owuor on Sunday.
With Egypt, Rwanda and Uganda, the other teams from the zone having secured a through pass to the second round, Kenya will be proud of its achievement, as it swept aside five other opponents to secure their ticket.
Burundi, Eritrea, Tanzania, and Somalia were the other teams in the five-day competition.
Earlier in the day, Burundi beat Eritrea 101-54 while Tanzania lost 101-84 to Somalia.
Seven zones will play pre-qualifiers in five groups in January 2020 across the continent with the five winners progressing to the next stage of the qualification process where they will join the 15 top-seeded teams from the Afro Basketball 2017 in Senegal and Tunisia.
These 15 teams that have automatically made it to this stage include Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Guinea, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tunisia, and Uganda.
