Nigeria’s D’Tigress kept their 2022 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup hopes alive after the team surprisingly edged the world ranked number 5 French side, 67-65 at the ongoing qualifiers in Belgrade, Serbia.
D’Tigress, currently ranked 15th in the world and number one in Africa, came back from losing the first quarter to shock world number 5, France before a capacity basketball enthusiasts 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 media parley, said the goal for his team was to play better than they did against China and it paid off with the win.
They will battle Mali in their game in the qualifier series. The Nigerian side are now second behind China.
