AfroBasket 2017: Nigeria Advances To Q/Finals, To Face Cameroun

D’Tigers, suffered their first defeat at the ongoing 2017 Afrobasket Championship on Sunday when they fell 83-77 to Congo, but despite the Leopards triumph, they finished second in the Group A on goal average rule, while Nigeria finished as winners.

In the other group A match, Mali beat Cote d’Ivoire 92-63, but that wasn’t good enough to guarantee either team a place in the Last Eight of the 16-team competition.

D’Tigers had already qualified for the quarter-finals before the game versus DR Congo, after surviving a scare from West African rivals Ivory Coast, who they narrowly beat 78-77 in their group opener on Friday, before triumphing over Mali 90-67 a day later.

Captain Ike Diogu led the game’s scorers chart with 20 points while Ayodeji Akindele (11) and Ike Iroegbu (seven) had the highest rebounds and assists respectively at the Omnisport des Rasde, Tunis.

Diogu, who sat out the entire duration of the 2015 winning squad due to injury, said losing to the Congolese served as a wake-up call to him and the rest of the team.

The 6ft 8 power forward admitted that they were no more pushovers but insisted that Nigeria were ready for any country in the competition’s final phase.

“Honestly, I must say that the FIBA Afrobasket Championship has come of age and will continue to get better so all 16 teams have equal chances of winning it.

“We are not deterred by our loss to DR Congo but will only use it as a wake-up call that the championship is getting tougher as we await whoever comes our way in the quarter-final,” he said.