D’Tigress, Nigeria’s senior women’s basketball team, defeated their Angolan counterparts 85-65 on Monday in Yaoundé to advance to the 2021 FIBA Women’s AfroBasket Championship quarter-finals.
Nigerians defeated the Angolans, who were leading the group, in their last Group B game to make it two victories from two games and take the lead.
According to the Nigerian News Agency (NAN), a loss would have put the Nigerian team in second place and forced them to play Cape Verde in a qualifier for the quarter-finals on Wednesday.
It was a same path that their male counterparts, the D’Tigers, took at the Men’s AfroBasket a few weeks ago in Rwanda, and it worked for them.
On Monday, D’Tigress ensured none of that by leading from the first quarter, which they won 31-18.
They extended their lead with a 21-10 win in the second quarter, heading for the game’s long break period comfortable leaders with a whooping 24 points.
They however stepped off the throttle in the third and fourth quarters, losing 15-19 and then drawing 18-18 respectively,
Adaora Elonu was a top performer for them, with 10 points, three rebounds and four assists, while Ezinne Kalu grabbed 12 points, just as Ify Ibekwe also had eight rebounds.
With the 67-50 win over Mozambique in their opening group phase game on Saturday, D’Tigress won the group and will now face either one of Cote d’Ivoire or Guinea in the quarter-finals on Thursday.
The two west African sides will meet on Wednesday in the qualifier to quarter-finals to decide which of them would advance to meet Nigeria.
Nigeria have thus avoided the qualifier to quarter-finals stage, where D’Tigers lost to Uganda at the Men’s AfroBasket in Rwanda.
Angola, Group B runners-up after the loss to Nigeria, now have to overcome the hurdle of facing Cape Verde before they can play in the quarter-finals.