Nigeria’s senior women’s basketball team, D’Tigress, snatched a semifinal ticket at the ongoing of 2017 FIBA Afrobasket Women championship after blowing out Cote d’Ivoire by 98-43 points in Bamako, Mali on Friday.
The Aisha Mohammed-led team had it easy as they dominated and won all the four quarters against the struggling Ivorians.
A breakdown of the game shows the Nigerians win with 23-13, 46-15, 71-32 and 98-43.
Akhator Evelyn continued her five-star performance as she powered the team to a comfortable quarterfinal victory with 21 points, 2 assists and 11 rebounds.
Evelyn, who lived up to the pre-match hype, continues to push for the Most Valuable Player of the tournament in her first Afrobasket campaign.
D’Tigress co-captain, Kalu Ezinne, put up another impeccable show contributing 17 points, 8 assists and 3 rebounds on a wet Friday afternoon at the Palais Des Sports Salamatou, Maiga, Bamako.
Elephant Girls Basketball Club of Lagos 3 points specialist, Nkechi Akashili recorded a 60 per cent conversion ratio from the 3 points line as she successfully made three out of five attempts on her way to contributing 13 points for her team.
Atosu Upe weighed in with 12 points and 4 assists to secure a semifinal ticket.
Speaking after the game, Coach Sam Vincent praised her girls for improving on their last game against Senegal.
Vincent said: “I thought we recovered a little bit more from the Senegal game in terms of getting our fast breaks going, pushing the ball a little bit higher and finishing well under the basket which we struggled to do against Senegal.
“I thought our defence was more aggressive.
“In the game against Senegal, we were down a little bit against the physical players, but we recovered to play a lot better.”
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