By Duro Ikhazuagbe
Nigeria’s senior women’s basketball team, the D’Tigress have been scheduled to kick of their campaign at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games against USA on Tuesday, July 26, 2021.
According to the fixtures for the basketball event of the Games released by the Federation of International Basketball Associations (FIBA) yesterday, the reigning African champions who missed out of the Rio 2016 games, will be presented another chance to prove a point against the team they narrowly lost to at the 2020 Qualifying Tournament in Belgrade.
After the opening clash with the Americans, the Nigerian ladies coached by Otis Hughley will next face world number five-France on Friday, July 30 before their last game against host-Japan who are ranked 10th on August 2 to round up their Group B outings.
In the men’s game, Nigeria’s D’Tigers will open Group B hostilities against Australia on July 29 at the Saitama Super Arena in Tokyo.
Alongside Australia, the number one ranked team in Africa currently on a nine-match unbeaten run in all competitions will also play winners of the Olympics Qualifying Tournaments from Serbia and Belgrade between June 29 and July 4.
According to the FIBA fixtures, after the completion of group games, the top two teams from each standing and the two best losers will qualify straight for the quarter-finals.
They will be divided into Group D (best four teams) and Group E (remaining four teams).
The quarter-final pairings for the men will be decided August 1 with the women’s tournament draws taking place the next day.
The women’s quarter final matches will take place on Wednesday, August 4
before the Semi-finals and the Bronze Medal Game on Friday Friday August 6 and 7 respectively.
For the men, their quarter final games will come up August 3 before the semi-finals two days later.
The men’s final will be played on Saturday, August 7 while the women’s take place the next day.
