It was an encouraging encounter for Nigeria’s D’tigress as they lost to World powerhouse United States 72-81 in the opening group B match of the Tokyo Olympics games.
The Nigerian girls started the game pretty promptly and sharp as they ran into a 6 point lead early in the game and took the first quarter with a 3point lead over the USA at 20-17.
They fell short of the spark in the 2nd quarter as the experience of USA players came to the party as they racked up 27 points in the quarter to Nigeria’s 12 to take the quarter 32-44.
More of the same it was in the 3rd quarter as the match began to run agonizingly away from Nigeria’s D’Tigress as the USA began to drop huge 3pts shots and draw a lot of fouls from Nigeria due to the aggressive defensive full court play of the Nigerians as the quarter ended 50-70.
With almost all hope gone, the huge height of the United States girls began to show as they extended the lead by over 20pts and it was beginning to look like a landslide comfortable win for the USA but it wasn’t to be as Nigeria’s D’Tigress showed outstanding fighting spirit and accrued a massive 22points in the last quarter compared to USA’s 11points to reduce the deficit to just 9points.
D’tigress next face another tough test against France who lost their opener to host Japan 70-74. The match will hold on Friday 30th July.
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