Afrobasket 2017 runners up, Nigeria’s D’Tigers, will return back to the country on Monday aboard a Royal Air Maroc flight.
The team will arrive without their Captain, Ike Diogu, who will head for the United States of America due to family commitments.
The delegation, which will be led by the President of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, Engineer Musa Kida, is expected to arrive through the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos at about 3:30am.
The 2015 champions, who were just in camp for about two weeks before their title defence, surpassed their pre-tournament expectation by getting to the final, defeating continental powerhouses like Senegal and Cameroon in the quarter and semi finals.
Although Tunisia claimed the FIBA AfroBasket title after beating Nigeria 77-65 in Saturday’s final in Tunis, D’Tigers still have something to cheer about with Diogu awarded the Most Valuable Player Award.
The D’Tigers captain, who led by example, emerged the tournament’s leading scorer with an average of 22 points per game, while Nigerian guard, Ikenna Iroegbu, who made his Afrobasket debut for Nigeria, was also named in the tournament’s Best 5.
The 34-year-old power forward recorded a tournament-high averaging 8.7 rebounds per game at the 16-team FIBA Africa’s most important competition.
Despite the loss against the host, it will be a tournament to remember for Diogu who was the tournament’s highest scorer with a total of 132 points as he powered the D’Tigers to the final after emerging as the team’s highest points scorer in four of their six games.
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