18th August, 2011
Nigeria’s senior national basketball team, D’Tigers, made a bold statement of their intention to clinch the sole Olympics ticket available for Africa at the ongoing Africa Nations Cup in Madagascar, when they outdunked their Malian counterparts by 84-59 points in their first match of the Afrobasket 2011.
The coach, Ayo Bakare, tutored side took control of the thrilling game from the second quarter after a poor start as they overwhelmed the Malians in the last three quarters to finish the game 20-22, 18-05, 18-14 and 28-18.
Coach Bakare said after the match that he was happy his team were able to come back into the game after the initial slow start. He charged them to avoid making the same mistake in their next game.
“We started poorly today on the excuse of acclimitisation. There will be no excuse from them in our next match as we cannot afford to send a message to our opponents that we are late starters.â€
—Bamidele Olowosagba