D'Tigeress Overcomes Adversity To Make History

HEALTH & FITNESS

2018 FIBA World Cup

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D’Tigress Overcome Adversity To Make History

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igeria’s female basketball team, D’Tigress, may not have won the 2018 FIBA World Cup, but they achieved a remarkable feat after plying through a forest of adversity.

No African team had won a group game at the basketball showpiece before the last edition in Tenerife, Spain.

But not only did Nigeria and another top African side, Teranga Lionesses of Senegal, break this jinx in the European country, D’Tigress defied the odds to reach the quarter-finals.

Photo Credit: FIBA

SPORTS

And come to think of it, they made this mark only in their second appearance at the World Cup after making a winless debut in 2006.

Speaking ahead of Nigeria’s return to the global stage after a 12-year hiatus, forward Cecilia Okoye said the team would shock the world.

“We want to shock people.

People don’t talk of Nigeria outside of Africa but we want to change that,” Okoye had said in an interview with AIPS. However many pundits and followers of the sport did not expect a strong showing based on the leadership crisis in the country’s basketball body and more

especially the tension in the team’s camp leading up to the tournament.

Two factions are fighting over the control of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), following the separate NBBF presidential elections in Kano and Abuja in June, 2017.

While the purported election in Kano on 12 June produced former President of the body Tijjani Umar, the other poll, backed by the Nigeria Olympic Committee and the Ministry of Sports, in Abuja the next day was won

by Musa Kida, whose faction appears to be running the federation.

“We want to shock people. People don’t talk of Nigeria outside of Africa but we want to change that.”

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SPORTS

And when everything seemed well with the Nigerian ladies during their first phase of camping in Atlanta in August, the Kidaled NBBF announced the sacking of Sam Vincent, the team’s 2017 Afrobasket winning coach.

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to the body, the coach was not committed to the job “due to other conflicting professional engagements.”

But Vincent strongly denied this allegation. Later, captain of the team at the time, Aisha Mohammed, was reported to have assaulted her teammate Ijeoma Ajemba.

He was replaced with Otis Hughley, who had worked as an assistant coach with Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors in the United States.

Ajemba was said to have notified local authorities about a squabble involving the two of them and three other team-mates.

The NBBF parted ways with Vincent because, according

But in spite of the aforementioned troubles in

the federation and the team’s camp, D’Tigress did not lose focus as they went ahead to make history, a remarkable one, that is.

“I expect everybody to have a solid focus,” AIPS quoted Hungary-based point guard Ezinne Kalu-Phelps to have said. “I look forward to us competing; I look forward to us doing great things.”

In a similar vein, the new handler of the team, Hughley, had high expectation as he reiterated what Ajemba had said.

SPORTS

“Nigeria has the talent needed and these ladies can shock the world,” Hughley said just before the competition started.

Competing in Group B alongside Australia, Turkey and Argentina, Nigeria did shock their opponents.

After tipping off their campaign with the Oceanians on a losing note, Hughley’s side needed a strong fight back.

They did that with a rage like a fire that consumed everything on its path as the

D’Tigress responded with three back-to-back wins.

They got the better of Turkey 74-68; overcame Argentina 75-70; and edged Greece 57-56 in a nail-biting contest.

The Nigerian ladies were eventually stopped by the defending champions and huge tournament favourites, the United States.

The Americans have won eight of the last nine Olympic gold medals and six of the last eight FIBA World Cups, scoring 100 points in most of their matches.

Any team could have been scared. But the Nigerians were not. Although they lost the last-eight game 71-40, they gave the USA a strong fight by winning the first quarter 19-9.

Nigeria eventually finished eighth, the highest position by any African side.

The African champions left followers of the game spellbound with fearless, relentless and, most importantly, boundless showing.

Their performance in Spain was inspiring. They, indeed, showed that they can stare adversity in the face and still come out on top.

It underscored the resilient Nigerian spirit. It further proved that one can achieve what one is determined to accomplish.

John Andah is a sports journalist and Senior Assistant Editor with Concise News Global.

Photo Credit: FIBA

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