'Lady Tigers Good Enough for Bronze'
Play Brazil in second game today
By Ayodeji Fashikun
As the Nigerian basketball women's team face their second match in the 29th Athens Olympics Games this morning against another World leader, Brazil, hopes have been given by an insider that if the girls play well as they did against Australia last Saturday they are good enough for a bronze medal.
Speaking exclusively to THISDAYSports, the coach of the team, Aderemi Adewumi who was dropped at the 11th hour in Athens said, "We have good shooters. Our shooting problems against Australia is a function of our players' age. By this second game against Brazil, expect a more compact and better team."
Although, the D'Tigress lost to the Brazilians 68-73 in the Diamond Ball tourney on the eve of the Athens Olympics, "It is a good pointer to the fact that the game is open."
According to the coach of First Bank basketball club, Africa's Club champions, "Having seen what it means at that level, I am better. Our task and ambition is not Africa. We have outgrown Africa. We are ambitious to raise a new generation of players who are taller, younger and faster."
On his drop from the team, he said, "It is one of those things. I grudge nobody. I am still with the team in spirit. I am full of prayers for them to succeed. Ordinarily, we could not have beaten the Australians. They were younger and more aggressive with good experience."
Against Brazil, "We have a chance if we play well enough like we did against the Aussies. That match, we lost to fatigue which the coaches would have corrected. We would have a better Nigerian team than the one we saw,"
Adewumi added, "I expect Udoka Mfom and Utoro Umoh to make the difference. Umoh is a point guard, matured and experienced. I think we can make it to the second round. If we do, we're in for a possible bronze medal."
It would be recalled that the D'Tigress last Saturday morning lost by 73-85 to World's great, Australia in their first game of the Women's Olympics basketball event of the Athens games.
D'Tigress had led at the beginning of the game by 11-6 but the Sydney Olympics silver medallist came back and took the lead 20-13 to finish the first period of the game with a 20-18 margin.
The Opals, as the Aussies are nicknamed, dominated the second quarter of the game with 46-32. Nigeria's Mfon scored 12 of her 24 points in the last 10 minutes of the last quarter.
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