Jnr Tigers Win African Cup, Return In Europe
By Pius Ayinor
It was a weekend of superlative performance for Nigerian basketball as the junior national men's team, the Junior Tigers won the African Under-20 Cup in Dakar, Senegal while in Europe, the female team heading for the Olympics continued in their devastating form beating top European teams on the trot.
Nigeria defeated Cameroon 83-82 late Saturday night to win the African championship. Merely reaching the final stage, though, had qualified the country for the World Junior men's championship billed for Argentina next year.
Cameroon were unheralded finalists, who upset previews in eliminating African great and host, Senegal at the semi final stage. Even though the signal was clear enough, they also nearly held sway against Nigeria until the buzzer. "We were down by two points with eight seconds left until Abubakar hit a three-pointer that landed at the buzzer. That was the moment of the whole encounter,"
Coach Sani Ahmed explained on the phone from Dakar. The Tigers defeated Angola twice in the group and semi finals in a lopsided fixture allegedly stage managed by the Senegalese which ultimately back-fired.
The Nigeria Under-18 boys are also the current cup holders on the continent. The team returned to Lagos yesterday to a tumultous reception powered by the presence of the Nigeria Basketball Supporters Club (the Hoopers). They were received by Federation members, friends and families and a horde of journalists following their achievement. And just as the boys were handling matters on the African continent, the senior ladies who are playing a tournament in Ankara, Turkey continued to dictate pace in Europe. The Lady Tigers beat New Zealand 87-59 at the same time their juniors were facing the Cameroonians. But before the Saturday defeated handed the New Zealanderss, the Romanians were first drilled 90-72 on Thursday. On Friday it was the turn of the Germans who were cut 75-73. They were playing the host, Turkey in the six-nation tournament as at press time last night.
In other results of Saturday, Germany defeated Romania 66-54 while Turkey beat Lithuania 96-89.The Lady Tigers landed Turkey last Wednesday uncelebrated but have so far proven they are African champions. The team's assistant coach Scott Nnaji told THISDAYSports on line that the trip to Turkey has been worthwhile. "The teams are either preparing for the Olympics or European championship so the opposition has very strong. Thank God this is giving us the opportunity to see the players individually and as a team in a high copetitive level"
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