By Akinwale Kasali

Nigeria Female Basketball Team, D’Tigress have booked a place in the FIBA World Cup tournament scheduled for September 2022 to be held in Australia.

The Coach Otis Hughley team against all odds booked the ticket with a victories over France and Mali in the World Cup playoffs.

D’Tigress beat Mali 73-69 in a pulsating encounter in a West Africa affair, to qualify for the World Showpiece.

The Nigerian ladies retained their aggressive approach seen against France and half-court game at key moments to dictate the tempo to rally back from a set down to beat Mali at the Ranko Žeravica Sports Hall, Belgrade, Serbia on Sunday afternoon.

The three-time African defending champions, who will fly the continent’s flag in Sydney, lost their first set 20-22.

Just like they did against France on Friday, the Otis Hugley girls did just enough to rally back from a 2 points deficit in the first quarter to snatch a win and book their second consecutive World Cup outing.

The second quarter saw a more purposeful and dominant D’Tigress crawl their way back into the game with a 22-13 points win to close the half 42-35.

The team won the third quarter 22-9 to extend their lead.

D’Tigress came off the saddle slower in the fourth quarter, which saw Mali dominate them with 25-7 points before another impressive 19-13pts finish in the 4th quarter to seal the win.

Having lost to China on Thursday, D’Tigress beat France to keep their World Cup hopes alive.

D’Tigress point guard, Promise Amukamara, says she’s delighted the team managed to put up a good performance and pick a ticket for the 2022 FIBA Women’s World Cup despite the adversity they faced before travelling for the recently-concluded qualifying tournament in Serbia.

The World Cup holds from September 22 to October 1 in Australia.

Mali who were bottom of the log started the game the brighter side, taking the first quarter 22-20 but the second and third quarters belonged to D’Tigress, who won 22-13, 22-9 but the Malians mounted a comeback that saw them almost take the game into overtime, but the Nigerians held on as their West African foes won the final quarter 25-9, but it proved too late.

Forward Amy Okonkwo led D’Tigress in scoring with 14 points, with four rebounds, one assist and one steal in 21 minutes on the court, while Atonye Nyingifa and Nicole Enabosi contributed 11 points each.

Point guard Amukamara led the team with eight assists and also contributed 10 points and two steals.

The team shot 46.5 per cent from the two-point line, and scored 30 per cent from beyond the arc.

Reacting to the qualification for the World Cup and their performance, Amukamara said she’s happy with the team’s overall performance, despite their troubles.
This tournament was really special for us; we battled a lot of adversity before coming here (Serbia). We had Ezinne Kalu’s injury, so I knew I had to step up,” Kalu said at the post-match press conference.

“Hats off to Mali, they played an incredible game. They played hard and we blew a 20-point lead but I’m proud of every one of us for getting the win.”

coach Hughley hailed his players for their resilience.

“I think fatigue set in, and having just one point guard really made it tough,” Hughley said.

“Fighting a team who were in survival mode and those are very dangerous people. You can’t protect yourself from folks like that when you’re not fully up to spare but our girls were mentally tough to still win.

“Promise (Amukamara) had eight assists, and two fouls early in the game. Hats off to Mali and their effort. The coach did an unbelievable job but our girls took the biggest punch and still won and they will be in Sydney and we’re just happy about that.”

In the same vein, Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, has congratulated the Nigerian national women basketball team, D’Tigress, for picking a ticket to the FIBA Women World Cup.

The D’ Tigress who are three times Afrobasketball champions beat their Malian opponents 73-69 on Sunday in Serbia to qualify as Africa’s sole representative.

They had earlier beaten the highly rated, world number five, France 67-65, after losing their opening game to China.

The minister praised the queens of the court for doing the nation proud and showing dogged determination in all their games.

The FIBA Women Basketball World Cup will take place on Sydney, Australia in September.

The 2022 FIBA Women’s World Cup will take place in Sydney, Australia between September 22 to October 1, 2022.