Senegal star targets Afro-basket title

2005 FIBA Africa Championship (Afrobasket) Most Valuable Player (MVP) Boniface Ndong is eager to guide Senegal to their first continental championship since1999. The 2.12m center, who had a stint in the NBA with the Los Angeles Clippers before moving to Unicaja Malaga (Euro league) recently, said that this could be his last shot at the championship. “I’ve been speaking to people and spoke to the coach recently and the general manager when we played against Olympiacos here and we still talked about coming back because I want to give it a last shot, winning the African Championship,” the 31-year-old was quoted as saying on the Fiba-Africa website. “It would be sad for my career if we didn’t win it. I’ve been talking a lot to other players and we’re all ready to come but we always have the same problem, organizational problem. But if these things are met, I’ll be there,” he added. Rwanda are also in the thick of things after finishing second at this year’s Zone 5 qualifiers that were staged in Kigali. The hosts finished second to Egypt and although winning the championship would be unrealistic for the East Africans, bettering their 2007 performance is certainly within reach. “I think we have the quality and experience in the team to break into the top ten this year,” said the technical adviser of the national basketball federation Innocent Karuhije. In 2007, Rwanda finished 12th out of 16 teams. Rwanda is also the only East African country that has played in this competition. Angola, who have won the last five championships are still hot favourites this year. Angola has won the championship for a record nine times. Senegal and Egypt have won it five times apiece. This year’s FIBA Africa Championship is set to run from August 5-15 in Libya. Ends

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Senegal star targets Afro-basket title