Recently updated on October 24th, 2022 at 02:10 pm
D’Tigress have emerged winner of the 2021 FIBA Women’s Afrobasket Championship after defeating Mali in the final in Yaounde, Cameroon.
With the triumph, Nigeria’s national women’s basketball team, D’Tigress have now lifted the Women Afrobasket title for the third consecutive time.
The Otis Hughley girls outclassed the Malians in the first three quarters — scoring 22-11, 13-9, 28-14 points respectively — while the opposition got the upper hand in the fourth quarter with 21-11 points.
The defending champions have been impressive all through the tournament and stayed focused on their objective of breaking records in the final against Mali.
They won the first quarter 22-11 but the Malians bounced back to take the second quarter 13-9 to make it a tight contest at half-time.
In the third quarter, it was the D’Tigress show. Captain Fantastic, Adaora Elonu, Victoria Macaulay and Ezinne Kalu worked so well with the team and they won 28-14. In the 4th quarter, coach Otis Hughley’s team sustained the momentum and with four minutes remaining, they will enjoy a 20-point lead over their opponents.
Mali put up a late fight to win the 4th quarter 21-11 and reduced the deficit to 11 points.
However, at the end of the thrilling encounter, D’Tigress won 70-59 to claim the 2021 FIBA Women’s Afrobasket Championship.
The D’Tigress have also qualified for the 2022 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup in Australia.
Elonu and Kalu were made the tournament’s All-Star 5. The hardworking captain fantastic, Elonu was voted the MVP of the tournament.
The Nigerian senior women’s national basketball team won the 2017 trophy in Bamako and has since stayed unbeaten in every African competition.
They also claimed their second title in Dakar, Senegal in 2019.
