The Director General of the National Sports Commission (NSC) Bukola Olopade has congratulated the Nigerian women’s team following their shock win against China at the FIBA U-19 basketball World Cup in Czech Republic on Saturday.
Nigeria opened their Group B campaign with a 93 – 88 points win against favourites China.
It was Nigeria’s first-ever win in their second appearance at the U-19 World Cup after debuting in 2011.
Despite losing the first quarter, the team rallied back to claim the second, third and fourth quarters.
Reacting to the win, Olopade described it as massive for Nigeria.
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“This is a big win for us as a country seeing our U19 basketball girls creating global records with Nigeria’s first ever win at the FIBA U19 Women World cup,” he wrote on his X handle.
“I want to congratulate the girls for this impressive start and urge them to remain focused and determined as they take on Canada in their second game on Sunday.”
Olopade added:”The future of our Sports is definitely secured.”
The Nigerian team would hope to make it back-to-back wins when they take on Canada later today (Sunday). The group’s other fixture is between China and Portugal.
The Portuguese did not had the best of starts after suffering a humiliating 88-49 defeat to Canada.
Meanwhile, Nigeria is Africa’s sole representative in this year’s tournament after continental champions Mali failed to travel.
