Nigeria’s D’Tigress is Africa’s 1st Olympic basketball quarter-finalist
Nigeria is tearing up the script in a big way at the Women’s Olympic Basketball Tournament Paris 2024 after they shot down Canada 79-70 to become the first ever African team (women or men) to take a ticket for the last eight.
Also winning two games for the first time at the Olympics, the manner of the victory was also impressive as they condemned win less Canada to an early trip home.
Nigeria gained the upper hand in the contest with a stunning 11-0 run to start the second half. It left Canada reeling and their opponents never recovered. As usual, Ezinne Kalu was hugely influential and did her usual thing by pulling the strings in the backcourt.
The playmaker registered 21 points, while Elizabeth Balogun chose a great time to have her best game in memory as she stepped up with 14 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists.
Nigeria were ruthless in punishing Canadian errors with an incredible 27 points from turnovers.
Nigeria look like they could give absolutely anybody in the tournament a game right now. Their rugged defense was back after a lapse in their previous game against France. Physically they are a handful and anyone they come up against in the Quarter-Finals will have to play well to beat them. And that speaks volumes.
“I am so proud of us. The last game wasn’t good for us and even in the first half today, we were not doing what we wanted to come out and do. We had a talk with ourselves and realised it was win or go home and we decided we wanted to stay,” said Nigeria forward, Amy Okonkwo.
Canada simply didn’t have the firepower in this tournament to be successful and that was always the concern. In the end, it will be the margin and manner of this loss in particular that will feel uncomfortable for them and rub salt into the wounds of an early departure.
“It’s been a hell of a journey and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. If you are competing with the best in the world in do-or-die situations you need to be ready in every possession of the game. I don;t want to make excuses. You have to show up every possession and every play. The teams we played did it better than us,” said Retiring Canada forward, Natalie Achonwa.
Nigeria have now won two of their three games in 2024 (v Australia and Canada). Before this year, the teams from Africa tallied only one win in 37 games played in the women’s tournament, against South Korea in 2004.
Canada have lost their three games during this 2024 Olympic tournament, the second time they failed to win a game in an edition, after 1976 when they lost their five games.
They have conceded 70+ points in each of their last four games at the Olympics, their longest such streak in the tournament. – Ezinne Kalu scored 21 points, only Mfon Udoka (3 games in 2004) previously managed to score 20+ points with Nigeria in a game at the Olympics.
Promise Amukamara made five steals against Canada, the second-most for a player with a team from Africa in a game at the Olympics (Nigeria’s Maktabene Amachree, 6 v Greece in 2004).
Kia Nurse missed all her seven attempts from behind the arc, the joint-most attempts for a player that failed to score a single 3-pointer in a game at the Olympics, alongside Korea’s Hyun Sun Han (0/7 v China in 1996) and Australia’s Belinda Snell (0/7 v China in 2008).
Source: FIBA
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