African Champions D’Tigress put up a strong competitive performance despite losing narrowly to host France 93 -86 points at the FIBA Women World cup Qualifying Tournament in Lyon on Sunday.
The team bounced back from their first half slow start to win the third quarter 21-15 points but was not enough to complete the comeback after securing an even fourth quarter 21-20 points, as the host crowd held their breath throughout the fourth quarter.
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Captain Amy Okonkwo who is just getting back to full fitness having been out for months due to injury, was Nigeria’s top shooter with 16 points and 2 rebounds.
The likes of Elizabeth Balogun and Musa Mujarnatu and Ezinne Kalu had double digits of points of 15, 15 and 14 points respectively to ensure the game was very even throughout the match.
Sunday’s game against the french team was by far the team’s best overall performance at the tournament and coach Rena Wakama was very impressed with her girls despite that narrow loss.
” I am super proud of my team .if you want to beat the top teams , you have to be able to capitalise on this type of games.
” Obvious credit to the french team, they are a great team and I have a great team too. I can assure you that we will continue to grow and continue to learn as we aim towards our ultimate target”.
” If no one believes us I believe in us and that is one belief we all have in the locker room. So once again, credit to the team”, the Coach said.
Captain of team Amy Okonkwo who had a very impressive performance despite just coming back from a long term injury, also spoke on how her team coped with the pressure of playing the host in front of a parked French crowd inside the Villeurbanne Sports Arena.
” This is not the first time we are playing France in France. We played them at the Olympics here in France and we have also played them previously before the Olympics”.
” To be fair, we are used to that factor but as a team we know what is expected of us and we know we have to stay together when the crowd are doing their thing. We keep fighting and sticking with each other and that is what we do always.”
The FIBA Women’s World cup Qualification tournament will end on Tuesday with D’Tigress taking on another European giant and host of the 2026 Women’s cup, Germany at 5pm Nigerian team.
