D’Tigress rallied back to shock world number five France at the ongoing 2022 FIBA Women‘s World Cup qualifiers after a hard fought 67-65 point win on Friday night Completesports.com reports.
Recall that D’Tigress lost their first game in the qualifying tournament to China 90-76.
The team led by Coach Otis Hughley did just enough to rally back from a 17 points deficit in the first quarter against France to snatch a win and book their second consecutive world cup outing with a game to spare.
Second quarter saw a more purposeful and dominant D’Tigress crawl their way back into the game with a 16-10 points win to close the first half 27-38.
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Not comfortable with the scores, the team applied more pressure to win the third quarter 21-14 before another impressive 19-13 points finish in the fourth quarter to seal the win.
An ecstatic President of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, Engr Musa Kida described the win as a result of hard work and steady growth since 2017.
D’Tigress will now face Mali on Saturday and a win for the Nigerians will secure qualification for the World Cup.
The 2022 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup, the 19th edition, will be held in Sydney, Australia between 22 September and 1 October later this year.
By James Agberebi
9 Comments
Huge win for D’Tigress. What a comeback!
Ranked at 15th, Nigeria is the only African country in the world top 20 in womens’ basketball. And the team they just beat, France, is ranked 5th in the world. Incredible achievement!
Congratulations Ladies, more wins
Congrats to the team. But we haven’t qualified. If Mali beat us on Sunday by over 7points then Mali would qualify.
And you think this Mali stands any chance??
If you had presented me with perhaps a Senegal, then I would have considered your comment. Mali ain’t got that depth, stamina and immense quality like these girls have, and they’ve just shown you yet another glimpse of that with this just-concluded France game
Waoooooooooooh!!!!! What could we ask for more!!!!! Great Girls!!! carry go nothing do una!!!!
Wowww…Wowww….Woowww.
I tuned in when the game was FRA 31-19 NGR and because of the way they played on Thursday vs China and at the Olympics last year, I was like OK, these girls have lost and then switched channels.
Wooowww….Im pleasantly shocked now to see they actually rallied back to win the game. Its really true that you never write a Nigerian team off ey.
Big kudos to D’Tigress team.
This will be our 1st ever back to back qualification for the world cup and 3rd major global tournament qualification in a row for the back-to back-to back African champions.
These are indeed good times for D’Tigress team, aided by the recruitment of the best quality and qualified coaches and players we can lay our hands on at this time.
Congrats to the team. I’m definitely going to be seeing the Mali game tomorrow.
Yeah hopefully the Dtigress secure qualification with a win against mail.pleasw where did you watch the game ?
That was a game of the year for D`Tgress. After the first quarter, I decided not to watch the game again, that it was going to be a blowout for Nigeria. But I could not resist going back and I saw that they fought better in the second quarter and even won the the 3rd. I waited till the game was over before going back to check, behold it was a victory and a great day for D`Tigress and Nigeria.
I hope these ladies are encouraged and their pending allowances are paid now. If they can reproduce the same mentality against Mali, Australia beckons.
Lol @CSN…you guys actually edited my comment, took out the link I provided and actually created another news article based on that link.