FIBA AfroBasket 2021: Mejri and Roll spark Tunisia to successful title defense

Tunisia won the FIBA AfroBasket 2021 after beating Cote d’Ivoire 78-75 on Sunday at Kigali Arena, Rwanda.

It’s the Tunisians’ third AfroBasket title, having claimed the trophy in 2011 in Madagascar, and the 2017 edition of the tournament at home. With the win, Tunisia became the first team to win back-to-back AfroBasket titles since Angola in 2009.

Omar Abada finished with 10 points, Michael Roll was magnificent by contributing 18 points and nine assists, Makram Ben Romdhane contributed eight points and 10 rebounds and Salah Mejri came up with 22 points and six rebounds for Tunisia.

Makram Ben Romdhane was named the FIBA AfroBasket 2021 Most Valuable Player.

Souleyman Diabate was four-of-five from behind the arc to finish with a game-high 22 points and his teammate Jean-Francois Kebe added 10 points in the losing cause.

Cote d’Ivoire had a strong start to the game, but Tunisia regrouped in time to close the opening quarter with a 25-18 lead. Tunisia went for the break with a 47-34 lead.

The Tunisians stepped on the court with one primary goal: To neutralise Cote d’Ivoire’s key player Matt Costello.  And the Tunisians’ plan worked to perfection as AfroBasket debutant Costello didn’t score his first two points until four minutes into the third quarter.

Despite the 13-point deficit at the break, Cote d’Ivoire opened the third quarter with a sense of urgency. The Ivorians used a 10-2 run to reduce the damage to five points (49-44), forcing Dirk Bauermann to call a time-out to reorganise his troops.

Soon after, Cote d’Ivoire’s short-lived resurgence, Tunisia responded with a 5-0 run for a 57-46 lead.

And even though Salah Mejri had picked his fourth foul with 4:10 minutes left in the third quarter,  which forced Bauermann to rest him, the African champions never panicked, keeping total control of their AfroBasket 2021 destiny.

Cheered by a significant portion of fans inside the Kigali Arena, Cote d’Ivoire rallied to single-digits in the fourth quarter.

Cote d’Ivoire’s Souleyman Diabate, who came up with an outstanding performance, converted a three-point, followed by a free-thrown, cutting the points gap to just three points (78-75).

That was the moment that the Ivorians’ last hope of staying in contention happened, especially after Tunisia turned the ball over with ten seconds left.

However, after a timeout called by Natxo Lezcano, Costello, who had been superb throughout the tournament, turned the ball over to allow the Tunisians’ celebration.

Cote d’Ivoire tried time and time again to try and reverse the score, but trailing by 16 early in the game proved costly to the team that last won a AfroBasket title back in 1985.

Tunisia closed their FIBA AfriBasket 2021 campaign with a perfect 6 – 0 record.

FIBA