Leemisa Thuseho
FOUR under-18 3 on 3 basketball players this week brought home medals from the annual Young Lions Cup in held in Botswana ending on Monday.
Palesa Matlole and Ntsoaki Snyman bagged a silver and a bronze medal respectively while males Serame Reabetsoe and Tseko Lekeno won gold and silver respectively.
The players competed in teams that had mixed nationalities as per this year’s stipulations. Each team was made up of four players from different countries including one substitute.
The other participating countries were Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Seychelles, Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
This was Lesotho’s second appearance in the tournament and Lesotho Basketball Association (LBA) president Faku Masupha said their players had improved compared to the last edition.
“We are happy with our players’ performances which helped their respective teams win medals,” Masupha said.
“Tournaments like this help us immensely. This is a set up that accommodates even teams with short players because they would not be as exposed as they would be in the five-aside set up.”
He said the other advantage for the set up was that it was cheaper to prepare for the tournaments.
The 3 on 3 format was launched in Lesotho last year and Masupha says it is important for the country to invest into it.
“Running 3 on 3 basketball is easy because you do not need much. You can even set up in a parking lot and play. This would be good for Lesotho since we do not have infrastructure.
Now that Lesotho seems to be getting its footing in the sport, they are now looking forward to holding domestic tournaments that will be on the association’s events calendar.
The country was represented by Liteboho Lelimo, Matlole, Matheakoena ‘Mabathoana and Snyman in the female category.
Lekeno, Thabiso Lephole, Serame and Refiloe Motenalapi participated in the male category.
