Nigeria’s senior male team, D’Tigers began its quest for the African Basketball title after they defeated Mali 74-59 points.
The Coach Ayo Bakare team despite starting their opening game on a shaky note, made amends rediscovering its form to win the second and last quarter of a keenly contest game decided at the Palais des Sports de Treichville, Abidjan.
The first quarter of the game saw D’Tiger trailed by 4points to Malians after it ended 14-18.
The second quarter saw a better performance from the Olumide Oyedeji and Ike Diogu star D’Tigers after they won it 17-9 to put half time score at 31-27points in favour of Nigeria.
The Malian then made Nigeria pay for their inconsistency at shooting from the rebound in the 3rd quarter wining it by 16-19points.
D’Tigers then showed the championship stuff they are made of dunking-off the Malians in the last quarter of the game with 27-13 points to win their game of the championship by 74-59 points.
The result meant Nigeria go second on the Group C table behind Cameroon who thrashed Congo 74-43 in the first game of Wednesday, to have a point difference of +31 as against D’Tigers +15.
