Head coach and team captain of Nigeria’s senior women’s basketball team, D’Tigress, Rena Wakama, and Amy Okonkwo, have explained how the African champions overcame Canada on Sunday to qualify for their first quarterfinals at the Olympics since their first appearance in Athens in 2004, Freelanews reports.
D’Tigress are tearing up the script in a big way at the Olympics, shooting down Canada 79-70 to become the first African team (women or men) to make it beyond the group phase in the history of Olympics basketball.
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It was also the team’s first time of recording two wins at the Olympics, which they did impressively to confirm winless Canada’s early trip home.
After their defeat to France in their second game on Thursday, head coach Rena Wakama said the African champions needed to get back to their ways against Canada, which was exactly what they did.
Parading several big names, rising teenagers, and recent WNBA draft picks, Canada were favoured to hold their own against any opponent in France after finishing fourth at a recent FIBA Women’s World Cup, but they were surprisingly schooled by the impressive D’Tigress.
Despite being ranked 12th in the world, the lowest among the participating teams at the tournament, Nigeria gained the upper hand in the contest with a stunning 11-0 run to start the second half. It left the world No. 5 reeling as they failed to recover from the heavy setback.
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.
With the win, Nigeria seem poised to give absolutely anybody in the tournament a game right now. Their rugged defence was back after a lapse in their previous match against France. Physically, they are a handful, and anyone they come up against in the quarterfinals will have to play well to beat them.
Reacting to the win, team captain Amy Okonkwo claimed the half-time talk was a difference-maker.
“I am so proud of us. The last game wasn’t good for us, and even in the first half today (Sunday), 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,” she said.
Also, retiring Canada forward Natalie Achonwa admitted that D’Tigress were the better side.
“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 for every possession and every play. The teams we played did it better than us.”
Now assured of taking part in the quarterfinals of the Olympic tournament, Nigeria became the first team from Africa to reach that stage, having won two of their three games.
Before this year, the teams from Africa tallied only one win in 37 games played in the women’s tournament (already Nigeria, against South Korea in 2004).
