Nigeria’s men’s senior basketball team, D’Tigers have commenced their 2019 FIBA World Cup African qualifiers on a good note, beating Uganda 102-86 on Friday in Mali.
The Nigerians, who won the 2015 AfroBasket to qualify for the last Olympic Games in Brazil, started poorly as the Ugandans who have been together for more than a year won the first quarter by 17-11 points.
But the second quarter was clearly in favour of D’Tigers who ensured they piled pressure on the Ugandans to gain the upper hand with 25-12points.
The second quarter performance was however good enough to see D’Tigers taking the lead with 36-29 points to end the first half.
On resumption for the second half, D’Tigers continued from where they stopped with accurate basket that earned them 28-20 points win in the third quarter.
At the end of the third quarter, the result stood at 64-49 points in favour of Nigeria.
The last quarter was more interesting for the Nigerians who got every step right to win the period with 27-20 points and end the game with 102-86 points.
Shooting guard Michael Efevberha scored 20 points in the game while Ike Diogu adding seven rebounds. Benjamin Uzor, however nine assists in the game.
Nigeria will face Rwanda on Saturday in their next game.
In other game played on Friday, Tunisia defeated Guinea 96-56 points.
Packaged by Lanre Olabisi
