Nigeria’s female basketball senior national team, D’Tigress’ coach, Rena Wakama has revealed the tactical approach she applied towards achieving a huge 83-47 win over Cameroon at the ongoing African championship in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.
Sports247 reports that Amy Okonkwo hit 18 points under 19 minutes to lead the Nigerian onslaught in the AfroBasket 2025 quarter-finals fixture against the former silver-winning Cameroonians, who fell apart like a pack of cards under pressure from D’Tigress.
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With Elizabeth Balogun, Murjanatu Musa and Ezinne Kalu also in top form, Wakama was delighted that four of her players finished with double points in the encounter, as D’Tigress inched closer to retaining their title once again.
While turning her focus on their semi-finals fixture with Senegal, who happen to be the most successful nation in the African Women’s Senior Basketball Championship history, Wakama reckoned that her down-to-earth pep talks made a difference against Cameroon.
She used her team’s shaky show in their previous game, which was a narrow 60-55 win against Mozambique, as a major learning point, and added: “I’m very honest with my girls, very honest.
“They know that I can be rude. Like in the second quarter, for the last few minutes, they scored only ten points, and I told them that was unacceptable.
“The message was, ‘Hey, we need to come out and dominate each quarter.’ After that, my starters did a phenomenal job in setting the tone.
“That brought a trickle effect down to the rest of the players, and that made them play better,” Wakama disclosed.
She will now aim for an ever better performance from her players in their semi-finals clash with Senegal, as D’Tigress continue their quest for a fifth straight AfroBasket title.
That would be a record consecutive conquest of the conquest and seventh title overall, but they will surely find a daunting foe in Senegal, who hold the African women’s record of 11 titles in total.
