Nigeria’s female basketball national team, D’Tigress suffered a setback in their build-up to the upcoming Olympic Games, as Otis Hughley’s side fell to Belgium in an international friendly, megasportsarena.com reports.
After winning two straight games in their ongoing build-up to Tokyo 2020, Hughley’s girls were brought down to mother earth, as the African champions were outclassed by the world No.6 and lost 79-47 at Lange Munte Arena in Kortrijk, Belgium.
The defeat was the first for D’Tigress in over a year and turned out to be a rude shock, as they had earlier defeated Puerto Rico 89-63 and Serbia 59-56 in their first two games at the same venue.
However, it turned out to be a different ball game against the hosts, as Belgium’s Antonia Delaere was her team’s most influential player after posting 13 points, four assists and two steals.
Sarah Ogoke added 11 points while Amy Okonkwo and Aisha Balarabe registered eight and four points respectively in the defeat.
Ezinne Kalu and Adaora Elonu did not feature in Sunday’s game, which turned out to be a all order for Hughley’s side, who are drawn in Group B alongside hosts Japan, France and champions USA at the upcoming Olympics.
It was a downturn of fortune from the surge D’Tigress had on Friday, when they defeated Puerto Rico 89-63 points in one of the friendly matches lined up by Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) to prepare the team for the Tokyo Games.
The team, which landed in Belgium from Las Vegas, USA same week showed their bold intention early in the game as they raced to a 13-9 lead in the first quarter, then went on to dominate all through 17-13, 31-16, 24-19, 17-15 to start their friendly match series on a winning note.
Amy Okonkwo who recently had a training camp stint with Dallas Wings contributed 14pts, 6rebs with a 50% field goal percentage and an amazing 15 minutes was all 23-year-old Pallas Kunaiyi-Akpannah needed as she dropped 14 points and 3rebs, while making 5 out of 7 attempted shots.
Adaora Elonu dropped 14pts and 2 steals as the team closed out the game in an emphatic fashion, Atonye Nyingifa had 10pts, 3rebs and 2assts while Promise Amukamara scored 8pts and 5 steals.
Hughley gave enough playing time to all D’Tigress’ players in camp, except Victoria Macaulay, who watched from the bench in a dominant performance, that saw each of the Nigerian players got at least two points.
