D’Tigress qualify for Tokyo 2020 Olympics

D’Tigress, Nigeria’s women basketball team, have booked their ticket for the 2020 Olympics Games in Tokyo, despite losing to Serbia in their second group game at the ongoing FIBA Olympic games qualifying tournament.

On Saturday, D’Tigress lost to Serbia 64-70 points.

For the first time in the sports history, Nigeria will feature in the Olympics with her men and women’s basketball teams.

Mozambique’s quest to qualify ahead of Nigeria suffered a heavy knock when they lost 49-124 points against the USA, current world champions.

They were in command of the first quarter which they won 22-21 points. Their good works were undone in the 2nd and 3rd quarters since they could not convert their chances.

#DTigress has qualified for the @Olympics in @Tokyo2020

First & may be the only women team from Africa to be in Tokyo
Only Sports Federation in Nigeria to have 2 teams (men & women) going to Olympics#DTigress making a return after missing 2016 edition
Thank you Nigerians!!! pic.twitter.com/pBzs3EMMyF

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— #NBBF (@nbbfonline) February 8, 2020

The 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 20points, 3 rebounds and 2 steals while Promise Amukamara scored 15 points, 4 rebounds on the night.

Adaora Elonu weighed in with 9 points as well as 6 rebounds.

Sixty-eight percent 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.