.Beat Mali 70-59 pts in final in Cameroon
.Bag fifth crown
D’Tigress, Nigeria’s women’s basketball team have emerged winner of the 2021 AfroBasket Championship after they defeated Mali 70-59 points in the grand finale played in Yaounde, Cameroon yesterday.
Nigeria lasses put themselves in the right stead to win a third consecutive title after they eliminated their greatest adversary to the crown, Senegal (whom they had also beaten to the title in the past two editions hosted by Mali and Senegal) in the semi-final and they took the Malians to the cleaners in the final.
D’Tigress won the first quarter by 22-11 pts but Mali stormed back in the second quarter winning 13-9 pts. Nigeria asserted her superiority in the third quarter winning by 14 points 28-14 pts but Mali staged a fightback in the fourth and final quarter taken that quarter 21-11 pts.
Galatasaray Basketball Club player, Victoria Macaulay finished with 15 points for Nigeria while Ify Ibekwe had 10 rebounds and Ezinne Kalu with four assists to ensure D’Tigress are winners for the third consecutive time having won in 2017, 2019, and now 2021.
They became the second country in Africa besides Senegal who won four straight editions between 1974 and 1981 to have won the African title at least three consecutively. Nigeria has now secured their fifth African title after winning for the first time in Maputo, Mozambique in 2003. D’Tigress defended it on home soil two years later. They are still far behind Senegal’s Lionesses who have lifted the crown on 11 occasions.
