D’Tigers’ Medal Prospect Varnishes with Defeat against Germany

Nigeria senior men’s basketball team, D’Tigers, suffered a second consecutive defeat at the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games after capitulating 99-92 to Germany in the early hours of Wednesday in Saitama, Japan.

The mostly NBA players dominated Nigerian squad played gallantly and looked like reversing their opening game loss to Australia, but they fell part in the third and final quarters of the game.

Trailing by three points in the first quarter which the Germans won by 24-21, the D’Tigers fought gamely and won the second quarter by 29-26.

With that, both sides were tied at 50-50 at half time. They went ahead to tie the third quarter at 24-24 taking the scores to 74-74 going into the final quarter.

However, the final quarter that was going to be decisive for both teams turned out one D’Tigers gifted the Germans with too many missed three pointers and free throws.

Nigeria at a time led with as much as twelve points but couldn’t do enough defensively to hold on till the buzzer. D’Tigers gave away too many free throws from careless fouls which the Germans easily converted to advantage.

The duo of Miye Oni and Jordan Nwora led the scoring for Nigeria with their three pointers gathering 15 and 33 points respectively.

A late surge from D’Tigers was not enough as Germany got their first win of the competition.

Nigeria will next play Italy on Saturday with D’Tigers chances of qualifying for the next round appears dimmed. The Germans face Australia at the same Saitama Super Arena on Saturday.

With two loses from two games both Australia and Germany are likely the two teams to pull through to the quarter finals with Nigeria and Italy settling for classification.