D’Tigers head coach Alex Nwora has praised his team for putting up a decent showing despite suffering their heaviest defeat to Cote D’Ivoire in the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup Africa Qualifiers, reports Completesports.com.
D’Tigers lost 72-46 to Cote d’Ivoire at the Palaise des Sports arena on Friday.
Nwora explains that fatigue and little time together in camp for training was a major reason for his team’s poor display.
He admits that the Ivoirians did a good job in containing his team’s offensive ppay after the team only managed to score just a single three-point shot throughout the game, saying it was going to be tough for any team to win with such poor shooting record.
“I know we are fighters, Ivory Coast played at home, they had their home support and that got to us a little bit too,” Nwora stated during his post match interview.
“I am proud of the way we fought but we could have done more to represent Nigeria better but we have two more games to regain our respect in Africa and hopefully we will do a better job tomorrow against Central Africa.”
Captain of the D’Tigers Ike Diogu on his part, admits that the team did not execute the game as planned while missing a lot of their scoring chances which cost the team dearly, but stressees that it is not enough reason to panic.
“We missed easy shots. A lot of those three shots that were wide open,” Diogu said during his post match interview.
“If I am being honest, do I think Ivory Coast is a better team than us? No. I think if we play them 20 times, we will beat them 20 times out of the 20, but unfortunately, that’s why the game is played.
“All it takes is one night to be off. They played well, hats off to them but is it a reason for me to be concerned? No, because we never shot like that before from 3 or 2”
Diogu is optimistic that all mistakes will be corrected on Saturday (today) when they face third placed Central Africa Republic.
By Johnny Edward
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