Ezinne Kalu Makes Olympic Qualifying Tournament All-Star Five

D’Tigress point guard Ezinne Kalu capped a fine personal showing at the FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Belgrade with a place in the All-Star Five.

Kalu averaged 16.0 points and 4.3 assists as the reigning FIBA Women’s AfroBasket champions sealed a place at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Nigeria beat Mozambique in their opener before falling to hosts Serbia in their second.

A narrow 5 point defeat to reigning world champions USA followed in their final game but their spot in Tokyo was sealed after Mozambique lost all their games to finish bottom of Group A.

Nneka Ogwumike bagged the TISSOT MVP award from Group A on the back of an excellent all-round showing including a 24-point display on 82 per cent shooting to go with 9 rebounds as the USA crushed Mozambique in the second of their three wins.

Ogwumike’s team-mate A’ja Wilson also made the cut posting 12.7 points and 7.3 rebounds with back-to-back 16-point games in the two opening victories.

Ana Dabovic represented the hosts amongst the All-Star Five with double-figures in scoring in all three games for an average of 12.0 points along with 4.0 assists and 2.0 steals for Serbia as they sealed their ticket to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

There was also a spot for Leia Dongue to round out the lineup after standing out for Mozambique with 10.0 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists.

The 12-team field for the Tokyo 2020 Women’s Olympic Basketball Tournament has now been confirmed following the completion of the four FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournaments.

The full list of Tokyo 2020 Women’s Olympic Basketball Tournament teams:

Australia
Belgium
Canada
China
France
Japan
Korea
Nigeria
Puerto Rico
Serbia
Spain
USA