Nigeria sealed qualification to the 2015 FIBA Africa Basketball championship in Tunisia and the All African Games in Congo with a 63-50 victory over Burkina Faso in the 2nd Leg of the qualifiers at the Indoor Sports Hall of the National stadium in Surulere, Lagos.
The D’Tigers who won the 1st leg by 23 points in Ouagadougou jumped off the starting block in style, in front of the ecstatic Lagos crowd with an 8 points lead in the 1st quarter with the score line at 18-10 points.
Though missing a couple of free throws in the 2nd quarter, the D’Tigers extended their lead 32-17 to go on the half time break with a 15 points lead thanks to good offensive display.
It was a tougher game for the host after the break as the Burkinabes’ gave a tough fight in the 2nd half winning both the 3rd and 4th quarters 15-14 and 18-17 points respectively. However, a relentless Nigerian side held on for the much needed victory to keep the 2016 Rio Olympics dream alive, which the 2015 Afrobasket will act as qualifiers.
Burkina Faso’s Moussa Ouattara lead the floor on the night with 12 points and 11 rebounds in the losing effort with no Nigerian player recording double digits.
However, Azuoma Dike, Abdulwahab Yakubu and Abdulwahab Yahaya all finished with 9points apiece with Azuoma adding 6 rebounds to his tally. And Nigeria’s only home based player at the 2013 FIBA Africa Basketball Championship (Afrobasket) in Abidjan , Stanley Gumut giving a performance reminiscent of the performance that got him a national call up putting up 8 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 assists and captain Olumide Oyedeji adding 6 points, 7 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 assists.
Nigeria is now joins 13 other qualified countries – Angola, Egypt, Cote d’ Ivoire, Cameroon, Mali, Morocco, Uganda, Cape Verde, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Gabon, Congo and host Tunisia- for her 17th appearance at FIBA Africa Championship built for the cities of Nabuel and Hammamet, Tunisia from the 20th-30th August 2015 vis-a-vis the 11th All African Games scheduled for September 4-19th in Congo Brazzaville.
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