D’Tigress beat Senegal 60-55 to retain Afrobasket title
The Nigeria senior women basketball team, D’Tigress yesterday in Dakar defeated their perennial rivals Senegal 60-55 to retain the Afrobasket title.
It will be recalled that D’Tigress had defeated the same Senegal 65-48 in 2017 in Tunisia for their third Afrobasket title.
Therefore, the 2019 Afro women basket finals was a repeat of the 2017 edition and also another close contest as the host fought back in the last quarter in a desperate effort to turn the tide.
However, the Nigerian ladies stood firm to clinch their fourth title.
D’Tigress won the first quarter 14-10, took the second 18-14 and the third 16-13 before the Senegalese ladies in a last ditch effort won the final quarter 18-12.
D’Tigress captain Evelyn Akhator was the best performer for the champions as she contributed 14 points and also made nine rebounds.
To emerge champions, D’Tigress didn’t lose a single match as they won their two group matches 75-26 against Tunisia and 106-39 against Cameroon.
In the quarter-finals, they beat Congo DR 79-46 before edging out Mali 79-58 in the semi-finals.
The third place match played before the final between Mali and Mozambique ended 66-54 in favour of Mali.
Meanwhile, Apart from the title, D’Tigress have also picked one of the tickets to the African pre-qualifiers for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The official draw which held on Saturday in Dakar pooled Nigeria, Mozambique and Congo DR in Group A while Senegal, Mali and Angola were placed in Group B.
The African Pre-Qualifiers for the Tokyo games will take place from November 14-17 at a country yet to be determined.