Duro Ikhazuagbe
Nigeria’s senior women’s basketball team, the D’Tigress continued their domination of the game in the continent last night as they claimed their third consecutive AfroBasket Championship title in Yaounde, Cameroon.
D’Tigress defeated Mali 70 – 59 to emerge champions of the 2021 AfroBasket Championship.
Apart from the honour of winning Nigeria’s fifth title in the continent, the Coach Otis Hughley Jr led team have now gone 21 games unbeaten in Africa since 2017.
They are Africa’s second most successful team behind Senegal who have 11 AfroBasket titles.
The Nigerian ladies started the business of the day with precision. They raced to the front in the first quarter leading Mali by 11 points with a score of 22 points to the 11 of the girls from Bamako.
Although Mali fought back, outshooting Nigeria in the second quarter by 13-9, the Nigerian ladies merely used the quarter to assess laying down guards to feel the pressure.
They returned to the front again in the third quarter (59 – 38), leading with 21 points before heading into the final fourth quarter.
They then stepped on the gas, racing to 70-59 before the final second buzzer with the third consecutive trophy already in the back.
Nigeria has now won the three last editions hosted in Bamako (2017), Dakar (2019) and now Yaounde (2021) .
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Sports Minister, Sunday Dare, has sent congratulatory messages to the team in Yaounde, Cameroon.
Dare said Nigeria’s victory is confirmation of her dominance of the sport in Africa.
“Clearly now Nigeria’s dominance of the sport is indisputable. This is the evidence that Nigeria’s women basketball can be ranked as a world-class programme. We have to sustain this momentum. This is remarkable, winning the Afrobasketball Championships for an unprecedented third time.
“I salute the team(D’Tigress) for their professional commitment and execution. They have done the nation proud and maintained the positive results we have achieved in sports in the last few weeks,” he noted with pride.
The victorious team was hosted to a dinner last night by Nigeria’s ambassador to that country, Ambassador Gabriel Abayomi Olorinsakin.
Team sources said last night that Ambassador Olorinsakin who had served Nigeria in recent years as the Chief of Defence Staff was of a great support to the team since they arrived in Yaoundé last week.
The Ambassador and his staff supported the team from the stands at the stadium; visited the team’s Yaahot Hotel residence to check on them and supplied baskets of fruits and other goodies to team on a daily basis till they triumphed last night.
