D’Tigers head coach to the FIBA Basketball World Cup qualifiers in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, Mfon Udofia, was left with a feeling of frustration last night after a narrow 70-67 defeat to Angola.
It was the Nigerian team’s second loss in the fourth window of the African qualifiers after Friday’s setback against Cote d’Ivoire. Nigeria’s only win came against Uganda on Saturday.
“It was a tough loss for us and I must say that the players fought hard but victory did not come our way,” Udofia told the FIBA website.
D’Tigers now have a very slim chance of qualifying as they need big wins in the fifth window in March 2023, but Udofia has not given up.
“It’s not over for Nigeria yet given that there is a another window. We will keep playing and giving our best till the last day of the qualifiers,” he asserted.
After Cote d’Ivoire became the first team from Africa to secure a ticket to the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup with seven straight wins, including three in the fourth window over the weekend, Angola are looking to follow suit.
Angola moved closer to gaining qualification after their victory over Nigeria, which earned them a third straight win in Group E in Abidjan
The Angolans completed a clean slate after beating Uganda, Cape Verde and Nigeria in Window 4 of the African qualifiers.
Against Nigeria, Angola came out prepared knowing the opposition, with
Gerson Gonçalves, who came off the bench, and Bango leading the way for them with 12 points apiece.
The game against D’Tigers saw five ties with leads changing seven times. In the first quarter alone, there were four ties and a defensive second quarter had scores at 29-27 in favour of Nigeria.
On resumption of the third quarter, Angola utilised every opportunity from the poor ball handling of Nigeria and the turnovers to to catch up scores at 44-44 with Dundao’s drive and Bango closing the quarter with a dunk for a score of 50-45.
The turning point was when Goncalves stole a ball from Michael Gbinije and finished the play with a dunk, and Angola did not give up their lead with the score at 56-50.
Though Nigeria tried to come back with flashes of three points shots from Amanze Egekeze and drives from Chimezie Metu and Josh Okogie, the Angolans remained resolute in defence and closed out the win.
Though, Egezeke and Metu scored 18 points and 17 points respectively, it was not enough to help D’Tigers past the Angolans.
“What was frustrating for us was that we turned the ball over 22 times and was the difference in the game,” Egezeke lamented.
“We out rebounded them but we didn’t take care of the balls getting into the basket. However, we will get back and work towards the next window.”
