30th August, 2013
Nigeria men’s national team, D’Tigers were on Thursday night defeated by Cape Verde 76-79 to continue their losing streak at the ongoing 27th edition of Afrobasket holding in Abidjan, Coted’Ivoire.
Ikechukwu Diogu and Al-Farouq Aminu’s 22 and 13 points respectively were not enough to save the D’Tigers from suffereing a second consecutive defeat at the biennial championship.
The Nigerian team led by coach Ayo Bakare had failed to go beyond the quarter final stage of the tourney because of the shocking defeat they suffered against Senegal 63-64 on Wednesday, thereby losing out on a chance to secure a ticket for next year’s FIBA World Championship holding in Spain.
Mario Ildo Correia, who plays for Primero Agosto in Angola, with a total of 16 points, was the star man for Cape Verde coached by a Nigerian Alex Nwora.
The D’Tigers won the first two quarters of the match 23-21, 17-16 before they allowed Cape Verde to come back into the game and won the third and fourth quarters by 17-15 and 25-21 respectively.
Nigeria will on Friday battle Morocco in a classification match to decide which team would finish in the seventh or eight position.
—Bamidele Olowosagba