The University of Nairobi Dynamites coach Juma Kent says the national women's basketball team, Kenya Lionesses, should not worry too much about their disastrous 77-45 loss to hosts Rwanda in Monday's opening tie of the FIBA AfroBasket Women's qualifiers.
Kent said the girls can still play in Friday's semi-finals even if they lose all their preliminary round matches.
"Since there are only four teams in the tournament, Kenya are in the semi-finals even if they lose all their three preliminary round matches. Losing to Rwanda by 32 points was shocking to us, but we are still in it. We can even top it by beating Egypt and South Sudan," Kent said.
He encouraged the girls to remain positive about their chances of making it to the continental showpiece in Cameroon in September.
"All is not lost. What the Lionesses need now is to remain focused on the job at hand and take each game at a time," he observed.
Kenya play South Sudan tonight and Egypt tomorrow and if they post good results, it will be a huge morale booster.
Kent noted that Kenya committed a total of 35 turnovers and had many travel violations called against them besides the bad passes.
"They can do better. We all know. Not every day a team can have a bad game and not every day a team can have a good game. They just need to rise to the occasion," he said.
Only one team from this championship will book a ticket to the continental show, joining Cape Verde, Nigeria, Senegal, Mali and Mozambique.