The Nigeria women basketball D’Tigress have qualified for the 2022 FIBA Women‘s World Cup after a hard fought 67-65 point win against world number five, France, as gathered by Sports Central.
Recall that D’Tigress lost their first game in the qualifying tournament to China 90-76.
The team led by Coach Otis Hughley did just enough to rally back from a 17 points deficit in the first quarter against France to snatch a win and book their second consecutive world cup outing with a game to spare.
Second quarter saw a more purposeful and dominant D’Tigress crawl their way back into the game with a 16-10 points win to close the first half 27-38.
Not comfortable with the scores, the team applied more pressure to win the third quarter 21-14 before another impressive 19-13 points finish in the fourth quarter to seal the win.
An ecstatic President of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, Engr Musa Kida described the win as a result of hard work and steady growth since 2017.
Second placed Nigeria will face Mali on Saturday afternoon while France will hope to bounce back when they meet China.
The 2022 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup, the 19th edition, will be held in Sydney, Australia between 22 September and 1 October later this year.
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