D’Tigress beats France 67-65 to keep World Cup qualifying hopes alive

Nigeria’s senior female basketball team, D’Tigress came back from losing the first quarter to beat France 67-65 in a World Cup qualifying game on Friday. 

Having lost their first game 90-76 to China and finding themselves at the bottom of the qualifying group, they took the game to the French side winning the last three quarters 16-10, 21-14 and 19-13, after losing the first quarter 11-28.  

Galatasaray’s Victoria Macaulay led the scoring for Nigeria with 19 points as the team led in 2 and 3 pointers 51%-44% and 35%-32% respectively. 

Macaulay’s outing was an improvement on Pallas Kunaiyi-Akpanah’s 12 points against China. 

Nigeria now occupies the second spot on the table with 3 points and a -12 game points. 

Otis Hughley’s side will next play Mali on Sunday. Three teams will qualify from the group to the World Cup that holds later this year in Australia. 

Coach Hughley in a post-game presser said the goal for his team was to play better than they did against China and it paid off with the win. 

Vanguard/Nnenna.O