By Kehinde Okeowo
After losing the first two games in Group B to Australia and Germany , D’Tigers knew only a win against the Italians can guarantee their continuous stay in the competition.
In the make or break game, the Nigerian lads started poorly by losing the first quarter to a dominant Italians 17- 29 points.
D’Tigers fought back bravely in the second quarter and against all odds won the Italians by 11 points ending the round 22-11 points and losing the first half narrowly by 39-40 points.
They shot into the lead in the 3rd quarter and now in pole position of pulling an upset by wining the quarter 24-16 points with the totally tally standing at 63 -56 points in favour of the Nigerians
Italians rallied back and won the final round convincingly by 24-8 points with D’Tiger once again losing the final round like they did in the first two games. The game ended with the Italians winning with 80-71 points.
By this result , D’Tigers have been eliminated from basketball competition at the Tokyo Olympics. In all, it was a useful outing by the team and the influx of the foreign based players have certainly strengthened the team. Coach Mike Brown must however, find an answer to why they finished the fourth quarters poorly.
