D’Tigress Begins Afrobasket Title Defence With Victory Against Mozambique
Nigeria’s senior women national basketball team, D’Tigress, began its 2021 FIBA Women’s Afrobasket title defence with a 67-50 victory against Mozambique 67-50 at the Multipurpose Sports Complex in Yaounde, Cameroon.
Nigeria are in Group B alongside Mozambique and Angola, with Group A having hosts Cameroon, Cape Verde and Kenya.
D’Tigress survived an early scare to come from behind to claim victory, as Ezinne Kalu emerged as Nigeria’s top performer with 17 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists. Team captain Adara Elonu recorded 13 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 assists.
Stefania Chiziane was Mozambique’s best performer with 12 points and 3 rebounds.
In the last four years, the team have emerged as the most successful team in Africa with back-to-back AfroBasket titles won in 2017 and 2019. Nigeria will face Angola on September 20th, while Mozambique will also face Angola on September 19.
“Mozambique is a real good team, they are really scrappy, they don’t give up,” Oderah Chidom of D’Tigress said after the match. “We had struggles in the first half…like giving up on the play and they would just steal it.”
“So eventually we just played our game and just never looked back. The key was to stay together.”
Four group winners will advance to the quarter-finals, with the remaining eight teams playing for the remaining four quarter-final tickets. The tournament’s top two teams will qualify for one of the qualifying tournaments for the 2022 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup.
View this post on Instagram
Chidi Nwoke/NBBF.
