Ivory Coast scrapes through to next round of qualifiers

Though former Accra Basketball League (ABL) standout Romeo Wilfred Enan failed to make Ivory Coast’s roster for the third round of African 2019 FIBA World Cup qualifiers, he will be happy how the mini tournament turned out.

Ivory Coast has qualified to the final phase of qualification to China by progressing from Group D as the last team behind Senegal and Central African Republic.

The team scraped through after losing 60-67 to Central African Republic on the final day of competition and needed help from Senegal to progress.

Senegal did just that by beating Mozambique 78-63 in the other qualifier in Group D giving the fellow West African nation the chance to progress.

Ivory Coast ended the qualifiers with two wins and four losses to pip Mozambique to the final spot in the group.

The Ivorians join an elite group including former African Champions Angola, Tunisia and Nigeria and shock entrants Rwanda, Chad and Central African Republic to fight for five places at next year’s World Cup.

By Yaw Adjei-Mintah
@YawMintYM onTwitter