The Africa Women Basketball League – 2024 edition of the Zone three has officially kicked off in Paynesville City, Liberia with seven teams lined up to chase the qualifiers to the continental stage of women basketball.
The tournament kick-off yesterday, November 4, 2024, at the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex in Paynesville, with an array of media day activity celebration, where teams from four sub regional countries met with stakeholders to interact through photosgraphy experience and engagements.
According to the Liberia Basketball Association (LBA), the foreign teams from Benin, Nigeria and Ivory Coast had an early arrival to join the two host teams while the Champions of the Ivorian women division’s arrival is still being awaited.
Addressing a media conference at the national stadium in Paynesville where the games is being hosted for the competition, LBA Secretary General Calvin Diggs explained the start of the African Women Basketball League in Liberia means a great boast for zone three and women basketball at large.
According to him, the regional women basketball tourney readiness will give the young women and girls the stage to adequately compete among themselves in different showpieces that had granted Liberia a hosting right for the first time in many years.
He said the number of teams participating in the competition shows signs of the growth of the game at the women–level, while a good number of professional players have consented to participate for their respective countries’.
He said the competition’s fixture will be released as of Tuesday afternoon, November 5, 2024, at the SKD Gymnasium, where all games are set to be played throughout the week till November 10, 2024.
The teams participating from the four zone three countries are: Commissioners and Invincible Eleven of Liberia, Societe Omnisports De L’armee (SOA) and Friends Basketball Association of Ivory Coast, Mountain of Fire and Nigeria Customs of Nigeria, and a lone team from Benin: Energie Basketball Club.
Commending the number of teams participating this year, in the women qualifiers, the LBA Chief Scribe, Diggs disclosed that it is a great thing that for the first time seven teams are participating in the event with Liberia being the host.
“The great thing is for the first time in zone three; Liberia is represented in the group of seven teams participating in the qualifiers. This speak to the growth of women basketball in the region,” said the LBA scribe. Meanwhile, the LBA has announced the presence of Zone three president Sam Amadou, to Liberia along with the five officials of the Federation of International Basketball Association, including the zonal secretary general.
