ZAMBIA HUMBLES vertisese

“The game was awesome. The girls gave their all. I’m actually failing to understand how they can perform at such a high rate looking at the time we got here and the fatigue that hit them as we witnessed in the previous game, but what I would say is that I’m so proud of the girls. I’m happy that they are able to put up a such a gallant performance for the country,” coach Lazarus Tembo said after the match.

“In the first quarter we were not sure how Singapore would set up looking at most of the games we watched them play, they use different styles so we didn’t understand who was their dominant shooter in the first quarter. We set up with two defenders who were a bit slow and Singapore was hurting us with their speed that’s when we made changes and it turned out to be the turning point for the girls,” he said.

Tembo said Zambia was able to handle Singapore after picking important lessons in the first game against Kenya.

“The two games we have played so far were both tough though the Singapore game was a bit easy because we learnt a lot from the game we played against Kenya. Kenya were able to contain us in the mid court because we were a bit slow in transitioning from defence to attack so we worked on that and played quick balls through the mid court going upfront, I think that really helped the team,” Tembo said.

Asked how Zambia would prepare for their next game against defending champions Tonga, Tembo said; “Our approach in the game against Tonga, our aim is to finish top of the pool and we know that Tonga is a very good side but they cannot match up the speed that Singapore and Kenya brought so I think we will use our biggest asset which is speed going into the mid court and attack then in defence.”

Tembo said Zambia will have to use man-to-man defence as opposed to having a double block on goal shooter because of the danger possessed the accurate Tonga shooters.