Nigeria’s women’s national basketball team, D’Tigress, and the USA are set to compete once again at the Olympics as they clash in the quarterfinal of the Paris 2024 Women’s Basketball Event today, Wednesday, August 7.
The quarterfinal game marks a rematch between the two countries after they met in the Group B stage during the last international multi-sports showpiece, Tokyo 2020, which was won by the USA. They defeated Nigeria 81-72.
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Prior to the knockout stage, D’Tigress posted impressive performances with stunning victories against Australia and Canada but lost to France, ending their Group B stage matches with a 2-1 record.
D’Tigress’ victories serve as a testament to their passion and resilience, making history as the first African basketball team (men and women) to reach the quarterfinal stage.
Ahead of the quarterfinal clash against the USA, the Rena Wakama-led team will seek revenge, leveraging their defensive prowess, steals, and turnover tactics to meet the challenge.
D’Tigress boasts a blend of experienced and young talents, with the weight of the medal hunt largely falling on point guards Ezinne Kalu and Promise Amukamara.
Kalu, who tops the country’s scorers’ chart, has recorded 58 points in this tournament. She scored 18 points against Australia, 19 points in Nigeria’s loss to France, and 21 points in the clash against Canada.
Amy Okonkwo and Murjanatu Musa will lead the way forward, hoping to score crucial points.
The USA, who have won the gold medal seven times consecutively, boasts A’ja Wilson and Diana Taurasi as key players who have led the team to victories during the group-stage matches.
By Dotun Omisakin
7 Comments
Anything is possible if the officiating goes well we are capable of shocking the USA. Whichever way we still try if it doesn’t go our way but I pray for the best and hope the girls will display a great mental strength by taking their chances and fighting for every rebounds because American girls are not God to always score all points.
Kudos to the girls. They lost by only 14 points to the almost invincible USA. 88 – 74. It was not a good pairing but they put up a good fight in the 4th quarter.
Proud of them, just like the Super Falcons. The ladies are the ones really pulling their weight for Nigeria in sports these days.
Kudos and congrats to the girls. We are still very proud of them.
We respected the Yankees too much in the 1st half, even though they were clearly the better side physically, technically and tactically.
The expressions on the faces of our players were like kind of wow, am I really playing against my WNBA idol…?! LMAOoo.
But I absolutely love the way they came out in the last quarter. It was as if the game should not end.
A very interesting game for fans of both countries and even neutrals.
I regretted not watching it to the end as I stopped after they gave us like 30points lead, saw the final score and was like wow, they most have really pull some 3pointers and all to climb that high, proud of them and if not for the inferiority complex and respect they accord the Yankee ladies at the start, the result would have been diff. So like this now, only Tobi is our medal hopeful at this Olympic, she came second after all 5heats @ 12.46sec. Or so at the 100meters huddle to qualify for the next round. I seriously wondered why our brothers from the north are not contributing to the nations sporting activities at all, I sure believe they would do well in the 5000 to 10000 meters, this Olympic is looking to be one of our worst in history already.
Yes, when I saw the level of respect our girls gave the US (except Amukamara) in the first half, I stopped watching. I’ll rewatch the 2nd half later today. Kudo to the girls.
Schuchs…! You guys missed the best part of the game. We blew them 26-12 or so in the 4th quarter.
The girls just came out in the 4th quarter, played without caution, expressed themselves freely, cutting through the American defense with some breathtaking individual and team display.
The fans even gave them a standing ovation at the end of the game.
I dont know what Rena told them during the half time break and going into the 4th quarter, but it sure did work.
I am really proud of them girls, and I sure know more foreign-borns will feel inspired to commit to this team after now.
I hope another Sunday Dare does not happen now that we are on the ascendancy again. As of today we are ranked 8th in the world….Yea…8TH BEST FEMALE BASKETBALL TEAM IN THE WORLD….!
Boys are into Yahoo Yahoo, cultism and drugs. In those days we had boxers from South South competing at olympics, now dem dey do bunkering.