FAP 77 – BC Espoir Fukash 60
It was Espoir Fukash’s third straight defeat against FAP in
the last six months.
The game started more like a duel between Joel Almeida and
Bobo Kasasa with the latter powering Espoir Fukash to a 24-18 lead at the end
of the opening quarter.
Almeida was perfect in the first 10 minutes, having made all
his four three-point attempts to finish with 12 points.
Kasasa, on the other hand, was 4-for-5 from the field,
including a perfect 3-for-3 from behind the arc to finish with 12 points, but
he would score two more points for the remaining of the game.
Things looked to be going according to plan for Espoir
Fukash, who trailed by six points early on, but took the lead thanks to an
aggressive and suffocating defense, which forced FAP to turn the ball over
eight times in the opening quarter.
At that moment of the game, Espoir Fukash’s aggressiveness
on both ends of the floor started to pay dividends.
With Mutombo cheering on his countrymen for every positive
action they did, Espoir Fukash stretched their lead by as many as 12 points,
but somehow, they headed to the locker room with a slim 41-40 halftime lead.
Things looked totally different in the second half.
Morman Deshaun Lamar’s three-pointer early in the third
quarter not only gave FAP their first lead since the first quarter (44-41), but
it also sparked the Cameroonian champions to go on a 10-0 run, and they never
trailed again.
Almeida scored 21 of his game-high 23 points from behind the
arc, Lamar, the other FAP player to score in the double digits, contributed 13
points.
Lamar limped off the court after a collision with an
opponent late in the third, and never returned.
“He has become of us. He is fully integrated in the team.
Tonight, he won one final for us,” FAP head coach Francois Enyegue said of
Almeida.
Lamar added: “He [Joel Almeida] actually gets me better in
the gym. We compete shooting threes, twos. He definitely was feeling it
tonight. He’s more of a veteran for us. We look to him to lead us throughout
the game, and he did a good job tonight.”
Talking about his injury, Lamar said: “I tried to make a
move, stepped on his foot, and it kind of twisted a little bit. Ice for the
rest the night and we’ll see if I will be ready to go in the morning. But I
don’t think it’s too serious, I will be good and ready to go for the next
couple of games.”
Kasasa led Espoir Fukash with 14 points and Rolly Fula
contributed 12.
“We should know better now. If we make many mistakes against
a team like FAP, it’s over,” Fula noted when discussing their 26 turnovers.
“We can’t make these many turnovers, and we need to
communicate better during the game,” Fula acknowledged.