Olympics: D’Tigers Lose To Spain In Well Contested Encounter

The West Africans had suffered consecutive loss to Argentina and Lithuania, so they came into the game knowing they had to defeat a Spain side who despite ranked world number two basketball team, surprisingly lost their first two games.

The game was however marred with security fears as police officials prevented fans from entering while they exploded a suspicious backpack left near a public restroom.

The controlled explosion by the Police and the Brazilian Army reverberated inside and out Carioca Arena while fans were allowed in later in the first quarter, AP reported.

Spain started brightly and ended the first quarter 25-11 ahead of Nigeria, Nigeria then muscled their way through in the second quarter and cut the deficit to just two points, 43-41.

A massive upset looked to be on the cards as the African champions overcame a mid-quarter slump to take a 66-65 lead into the final quarter.

However, Spain’s superior experience finally proved to be the difference in the fourth quarter as Juan-Carlos Navarro was on hand to ensure the Europeans never trailed again.

Though Nigeria did twice pull to within a point on Oguchi three-pointers, Spain had an answer each time.

“Nigeria just kept battling us, but we were able to get out of it. That was the first step in the right direction,” said Spain’s Paul Gasol, who finished the game with 16 points.

“We knew this wasn’t going to be easy. We played two heart-breakers (against Croatia and Brazil) but we got a good win, an important win, against a team that’s playing really well. They made it really tough on us.”

D’Tigers must now beat Croatia and Brazil in their next two matches to reach the quarter-finals as they have lost three games against Argentina, Lithuania and now Spain.