Nigeria’s D’Tigress recorded their second win at the ongoing AfroBasket Women’s championship in Yaounde, easily defeating Angola 85 – 65 to book their passage into the quarterfinals on Monday night.
In a game that looked like it would be a banana peel for the defending champions, Nigeria made light work of the match, blowing out their opponents by 20pts.
Having beaten Mozambique 67-50 in their first group B match, D’Tigress worked hard to avoid the early jitters from that match where they trailed going into half, rather they got their noses in front against Angola, putting up a high scoring first quarter (31-18) to show their intent.
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Five players finished on double digits for Nigeria, sharing the scoring burden across the team in an impressive team performance.
For Nigeria, Ezinne Kalu led with a team high 12 points and three assits, but it was the contributions from the likes of Oderah Chidom and Ify Ibekwe which made the difference. Chidom made 10 points and six rebounds, with the boisterous Ibekwe accounting for nine points and eight rebounds.
Although from what they have shown so far in Yaounde, Nigeria remains the overwhelming favourites to go on and retain their title.
But there are other dark horses who could still surprise them in the knockout stage of the competition. Mali, Senegal, and the hosts Cameroon all won their opening two games of the Championships, and will get stronger as the competition progresses.
Nigeria will now play the winner of the second round match between Ivory Coast and Guinea on Thursday for a place in the semifinals of the competition.
