Nigeria beat Croatia to claim first basketball win at Rio Olympics

Nigeria earned its first win at the 2016 Olympics basketball tournament with a 90-76 defeat of Croatia on Saturday night.

With the victory, D’Tigers, who are African champions, improved to 1-3 to keep alive the hope of advancing to the quarter-finals.

Croatia led 28-21 at the end the first quarter, but Nigeria outscored them 22-11 in the second to take a 43-39 half-time lead.

Michael Umeh hit 5-of-8 three-pointers for 16 first half points.

Nigeria’s hot shooting from long range continued in the third quarter, as they hit 4-of-7 attempts.

Their lead reached 50-35 when Ike Diogu connected from beyond the arc.

An 8-0 run spanning the end of the third quarter and start of the fourth enabled Croatia to cut the deficit to single digits at 70-61.

They got within 74-71 on a Bojan Bogdanovic free-throw with 4:14 left to play but down the stretch Josh Akognon and Ebi Ere hit clutch three-pointers to secure the impressive win.

The win rank as Nigeria’s biggest win at the world level since they surprised Greece 80-79 at the 2012 FIBA Olympic qualifying tournament.

Heading into their final group game on Monday against hosts Brazil on the back of this win can only do their confidence a world of good.

Croatia will face European rivals Lithuania and whether or not they reach the quarter-finals may be dictated by more than the result of their game.