The Nigeria Senior Women’s National Team, D’Tigress on Sunday edge passed Mali, 73-69, to book their spot in the FIBA Women’s World Cup in Sydney Australia come September.
D’tigress, who had earlier lost their first game to China, 90-76, on Thursday had to rally round to record a shocking 67-65 against world’s No.5- France, to have a chance of berthing in FIBA World World Cup.
D’tigress lost the first quarter, 20-22, came back to take the second and third quarters 22-13, and 22-9 before Mali took the final quarter 25-9 but not enough to overtake dominant D’tigress.
Amy Okonkwo led the floor with 19 points with eight rebounds for D’tigress.
The impressive performance of D’tigress saw fans at the Ranko Zaravic Sports Hall in Belgrade cheering them to a famous victory.
The Coach Otis Hughely led team had continued to impress their fans following a horrible Olympics outing in 2021 in China where they lost all three group matches.
They came from that setback to claim their third straight Africa Nations Cup Basketball Women’s title in Cameroon also in 2021.(NAN)