Basketball: Nigeria Upsets USA In Pre-Olympic Exhibition Game
Nigeria’s basketball team, D’Tigers, upset the United States in a pre-Olympic exhibition basketball game, winning 90-87 at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday.
Team USA, ranked number 1 by FIBA, started the game with a lineup that included a player of Nigerian origin Bam Adebayo, with other NBA stars Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard, Bradley Beal and Jayson Tatum.
Nigeria had a line up that included Miami Heat guard Gabe Vincent, Kz Okpala, Josh Okogie, Ike Nwamu and Precious Achuwa, led by former NBA head coach Mike Brown.
Nigeria showed intent from the start as their near perfect outside shooting was finding the bucket. Bam Adebayo slammed in two hammers for the USA, but Nigeria went two up after 5mins to lead USA by 13-11.
Team USA, who were playing the first of a five of tune-up games before the Tokyo Olympics, gradually eased into the game to finish the 1st quarter leading by a point (23-22).
Nigeria tried as much as they could to stay in the game, going into the break trailing by just two points.
D’Tigers struggled at the start of the third quarter, but when they found their shooting range they went on a 9-0 run. They outscored Team USA by 25-21 in that quarter to go two points up heading into the fourth quarter.
Team USA tried hard to find their way back but but they couldn’t as a determined Nigeria side extended its lead to 8 points, their biggest margin in the game.
Nigeria saw out the contest and made history after beating the United States for the first time ever, a real boost and rude awakening to other teams who might not consider them a huge medal prospect heading to the Tokyo Olympics.
Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant led the Americans with 17 points, while Jason Tatum added 15. Damian Lillard had 14 and Bam Adebayo had 11. Nigeria were led by Gabe Vincent with 21 points and 6 rebounds. Caleb Agada scored 17 points, while Ike Nwamu added 13.
Mike Brown’s Nigeria side stunned Team USA, becoming the first African country to hand USA a rare defeat in a basketball game described as one of the great upsets in international basketball history.
“It was an exhibition and at the end of the day it doesn’t mean much in the standings,” said Nigeria coach Mike Brown. “But it’s a good win for us. I don’t think any African team has been able to beat USA Basketball.”
The 90-87 defeat, which came nine years after the former African champions lost by 83 points to Team USA at the 2012 Olympics in London, handed the Americans their first slump to an African nation.
There were 42 three-pointers in the game and 20 of those were made by the Nigerians.
Gabe Nnamdi Vincent might not have seen a lot of action for the Miami Heat in the regular season, but he came instrumental for Nigeria on the day. There were very impressive players all round for Nigeria as Ike Nwamu, Caleb Agada all made strong cases why they should be on the roster to Japan.
Overall Nigeria is stacked with talent, and from the evidence of what was witnessed in Las Vegas, they are not going to Japan to make up the numbers, they will definitely challenge for a medal.
Chidi Nwoke/D’Tigers.
