Nigeria’s D’Tigress claimed the 2017 FIBA Afrobasket Women title, defeating Defending Champions, Senegal 65-48 on Sunday.
Nigeria trailed by 14 points in the first quarter, but maintained their spirit by crawling their way past Senegal in the other quarters.
With the win against Senegal on Sunday, Nigeria have claimed his third Afrobasket title, doing it in a special way of beating the defending Champions twice in the tournament.
In the early stages of the game it looked like Senegal were on course to retain their title going by their 18-4 lead over Nigeria in the first five minutes of the first quarter, however D’Tigress gradually clawed their way back and reduced it to a 6-point game going into the 2nd quarter.
It was further reduced to 3 points, but the Senegalese missed a couple of shots that allowed the Nigerians lead by 33-27 points at the end of the 2nd quarter.
At that point, they didn’t look back as they punctured every hope of any comeback when Sarah Ogoke sunk in a 3-pointer that opened up a 14-point lead in the 3rd quarter.
By then the Senegalese were labouring to find their early swagger which saw them lead at some point, as one coulde sense that there was a feeling of defeat creeping in the minds of their players as they repeatedly called for timeout, and it looked like “dejavu” all over having lost by 54-58 points to Nigeria in the group stages.
Senegal’s Astou Traore who would go on to retain her MVP award, tried all she could leading with a game high 17 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists. While Nigeria’s Osaretin Akhator led for her team with 13 points, 7 rebounds and 2 assists.
CREDIT: MakingOfChampions
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