A key player in the history-chasing Nigerian women’s basketball team, D’Tigress, Elizabeth Balogun, has explained why the squad had a slow start in Saturday night’s AfroBasket 2025 semi-final comeback victory over Senegal.
Sports247 reports that D’Tigress trailed for two quarters (17-22, 20-21) before drawing level in the third (15-15) and won the fourth (23-10) to wrap up a stunning 75-68 victory over the 11-time record-winning Senegalese side.
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The victory in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, puts D’Tigress on course to clinch a record fifth straight AfroBasket title and seventh overall, which 24-year-old Balogun believes would be another huge statement by Coach Rena Wakama’s squad.
The CB Bembire of Spain star, who was born in Lagos but started playing basketball in the United States of America as a high school student at Hamilton Heights Christian Academy, admitted that the Nigerian lasses started late in Saturday’s game, but still ended up proving their mettle.
Balogun retorted, “We always try and make a statement. It’s our way of playing. This is what we know how to play. This is Nigerian basketball.”
The exuberant lass, who also played basketball actively at Georgia Tech, Louisville College, and Duke College, explained that the slow start is a deliberate strategy employed by the coach, but they eventually break loose when it matters most.
Balogun, who was part of McDonald’s American All Stars in 2018 and emerged ACC Rookie of the Year in 2019, submitted: “(Our style is) reading the game, storing details, starting very slowly, then going all out.
“We can step up when we need to be strong and hard, in order to control the tempo.”
