By Kehinde Okeowo
The Nigerian female basketball team, D’Tigress, began the defence of it’s FIBA Woman’s AfroBasket Championship with a win over Mozambique, at the Palais Polyvalent Des Sports in Younde, Cameroon.
The team which is in group B along Mozambique and Angola, survived an early scare to beat Mozambique in their first Group B encounter of the tournament.
The first quarter of the pulsating encounter ended 12-11points in favour of the less fancied Mozambican side.
The Southern African nation continued brilliantly in the second quarter and deservedly won 21-18 points to lead the first half of the game 33- 29 points.
The defending champion, D’Tigress, woke up from it’s slumber in the second half of the match to convincingly won the third quarter 24-9 points.
Nigeria continued it’s dominance in the final quarter and won it 14-8 points, to win the game 67-50 points.
Ezinne Kalu, scored 17 points to top-score , while team captain Adara Elonu also impressed, netting 13 points.
The Nigerian team who won the Woman
AfroBasket Championship title back to back in 2017 and 2019, will need to win Angola, when they play on Monday, to stay top of the group.
Group A consist of host Cameroon, Cape Verde and Kenya. Guinea, Egypt and Senegal occupy Group C, while Group D have Mali, Cote D’Ivoire and Tunisia.
The 25th edition of AfroBasket Women’s Championship, which started on September 18, 2021, is expected to end on September 26, 2021.