Nigeria’s female national basketball team, D’Tigress advance to the AfroBasket Women 2015 semi-final after beating Mozambique by 71-66 points in the first quarter-finals on Thursday in Yaounde, Cameroon.
The Nigerian ladies will now face Cameroon in the semi final after the host defeated Egypt by 76-54 points in the other quarter final game.
The Scott Nnaji led team had on Tuesday night beat Algeria 79-49 in their fifth and last Group B game to reach the quarter final after starting the tournament with a 57-51 defeat to Angola before going on to win the rest of their group matches, beating Egypt 97-68, Guinea 100-47 and Senegal 75-64.
Yesterday’s game saw Joyce Ekworomadu sparked Nigeria with a game-best 20 points, while Odelia Mafanela and Deolinda Ngulela combined for 34 Mozambique points.
Game hero, Helen Ogunjimi has officially become Nigeria’s secret weapon. She not only played aggressive defense, but 30-year-old guard provide two crucial three-pointers keeping Nigeria very much alive in the contest.
Two years ago, Mozambique upset Nigeria in the quarter finals, and on Thursday they were very close to repeat their fortunes, but Nigeria stepped on floor a desperation mode, reaching the tournament’s semi final for the second time since 2011.
Ndidi Madu, who clear the boards with a game-high 13 rebounds later told FIBA.com: “It was a tough game for us. Mozambique is a great team. We didn’t do a good of job rebounding. We definitely need to able to rebound in order to win ball games. It does not matter who we face tomorrow, we just need to be ready for the fight.”
