Nigeria’s D’Tigress on Saturday booked a ticket to the 2020 Olympics Games in Tokyo despite losing to host-Serbia in their second group game at the ongoing FIBA Olympic Games Qualifying Tournament 64-70 points.
Mozambique’s quest to qualify ahead of Nigeria suffered a heavy knock when they lost scandalously 49-124pts against current world champions- USA as Nigeria Basketball Federation set another enviable record of being the only federation in Nigeria to have two teams at the Olympics.
Being in command of the first quarter which they won 22-21pts, their good works were undone in the 2nd and 3rd quarters as their inability to convert their chances saw Serbia work their way back into contention winning 22-12 and 16-12 to open a decent lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Nigeria’ senior women national team tried to rally back in the last quarter after cutting down the deficit to just 4 points with less than two minutes to go, but two successive turnovers by Ezinne Kalu put a stop to that.
Although, they picked the last quarter, 18-11, it was a case of too little too late against the host who on the back of a vociferous home support stood their ground to see out the game.
Kalu led the charge for Nigeria with 20pts, 3 rebs and 2 stls while Promise Amukamara scored 15pts, 4 rebs on the night.
Team captain, Adaora Elonu weighed in with 9pts of her own as well as 6rebs.
68.75% conversion rate from 16 free throw attempts, 38.98% from field goal attempts and 41.03% success from the trey points line summarised the performance of the girls on the night that they found it difficult for their shots to drop against the Serbians currently ranked 7th in the world.
On Sunday, Nigeria will take on USA in their last group game which will have no effect on the 2020 Olympics qualification.
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COMMENTS
But how come, the NFF, are not able to get such quality of green jersey,worn by this female basketballer, for our SE?
Congratulations to our Super D Tigress. You girls have done very well.
When you quality, is your determinant on the colour or
clothing? the game aint the same as well as the playing
condition? they all quality in my point of view for their
specific sports.
@ Papa, I know for sure that colour of Jersey don’t determine performance. But I am of the camp, that believe in ” what is worth doing is worth doing well.” . Those SE new set of kits fall short of quality, if we must be honest with ourselves. Nigerians are vibrant by nature and kits should represent that but those new kits look like after a hard day job.
Congrats to the NBBF. This one one federation with a focus. Even though they’ve been having their internal squabbles of late, the managed to limit it to the boardrooms.
They know what they want and they go for it….they want a coach (foreign or local) they go for it,and a qualified and quality one for that matter. They want foreign born players, they go for them, without posting useless pictures on social media. They want to prepare for tournaments, they do so way ahead of time.
Little wonder we are now ranked in the top 20 of basketball nations in the world.
Congrats Tigress… congrats NBBF…congrats Nigeria.
Let people who are serious go to Tokyo. The sports ministry should pump all that money they would have given to those NFF long throats into other sports and see how wonderfully they will perform.
Drey you talk sense today without insulting anyone and it’s happens to be basketball one of sports favorite games. We must slaughter Cow today!
I don’t insult anyone if they didn’t insult me first. Neither do I insult anyone if they have not insulted any of our national heroes putting Nigeria’s image on the world map with their talents.
I only do unto them what they do unto others.
This is attestation that when organised,Nigerians do succeed.
We just need to put the right people at the helm.
People with quality,will and foresight to get a job done.
Not some fake racist,tribalistic yes men still stuck in past euphoria and believing the way forward by sticking to nostalgic feelings drawn from selfish emotions.
Forgive my rant;we should be celebrating.
The point is,once the house is in order with the right people on board; people that want to work and know how to work,things fall into place naturally. Nigerians are talented,heck we have the numbers and not just that, a highly qualified,literate and sophisticated populace that can get things done, they just need the right leadership to provide that basic support.
I must state,the Sports minister Dare is doing wonderfully well so far. I like his momentum,I hope he keeps it going.
Honourable mentions must go to the Wrestling federation, Taekwondo, Table Tennis,Cricket and Rugby Federations. They have been working relentlessly(successfully so as well) on a low key and don’t always get the necessary press and support needed.
I hope they do get it..
And to others not mentioned but doing well, hope your time under the sun comes..
To those not trying..you better change your ways or be left behind..
Congrats again to the girls,the Nbbf and Nigeria .