Nigeria successfully defended their FIBA Women’s AfroBasket crown after they won their second straight title against hosts Senegal with a 60-55 scoreline in a tightly contested final. The game took place on Sunday night at the magnificent 15,000-seater Dakar Arena.
D’Tigress showed their dominance on the continent by registering a perfect five-game unbeaten run at the biennial competition, along with commendable performances all through the tournament, en route the final. They have now gone on to win the FIBA Women’s AfroBasket crown four times.
Nigeria started the game on top of the proceedings and led both the first and second quarters to enter the half time break with a 32-24 lead and even though Senegal made a strong comeback in the third quarter to tie the game at 54-up with 2:24 to play in the last quarter, D’Tigress dug deep to eventually win the coveted trophy.
“We have been here before. We prepared ourselves as though every game would be like this. It is just that the previous games did not give us live training outside of playing ourselves so when that came, we had already been programmed. It is entrenched in our DNA to be ready for a tight game, make smart decisions and take care of the ball and that is what we did,” said Hughley Jr.
Otis Hughley Jr and his side ensured that Nigeria became only the second team to defend their title having won it in 2003 and defended it at home in Abuja in 2005.