Oviri Kelvin
The Nigeria Female Basketball team has qualified for the FIBA 2022 Women’s World Cup after seeing off Mali in a 73 – 69 scoreline to top group B.
In their FIBA World Cup qualifying campaign, D’Tigress had earlier defeated France 67 – 65 while upturning a 17 points deficit in the group B clash.
Ranked 15 in the world, D’Tigress lost to China (90 – 76) in their first march but rekindled their hope after a hard-fought win (67 – 65) against France. The win made them trail behind China who revelled at the top of group B before today’s final game.
D’Tigress, who trailed by two points behind Mali in the first quarter with 20 – 22 points, took the lead in the second and third quarters with 22 – 13 and 22 – 9 points respectively.
Mali came back in the fourth quarter with a game plan to upturn the deficit of 20 points in a dominant play but despite their effort after winning the fourth quarter 9 – 25, the D’Tigress won the match with an overall score of 73 – 69.
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According to FIBA game statistics, the top performer for D’Tigress was Nicole Enabosi who scored a total of 11 points, got 8 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, +16 efficiency, and 1 block.
Meanwhile, Amy Okonkwo, 25, team leader of the D’Tigress and plays for Innova-TSN Leganes in Spain, scored a total of 14 points.
However, according to FIBA statistics, the Nigeria female basketball team outperformed the Mali female basketball team in 3-point shots, free throws, rebounds, turnovers, blocks, and steals.
This win is indeed a welcome development and it has placed the D’Tigress at the top of group B ahead of China and France.
