Sports

D’Tigers beat Croatia, ready for Brazil battle

Published

8 years ago

August 15, 2016

Nigeria’s senior male basketball team, the D’Tigers, on Sunday put their hope of qualification back on track with a win over Croatia for the final classification after the group stage.

Nigeria earned their first win at the 2016 Olympic Basketball Tournament by pulling off the biggest upset to date in the competition with a 90-76 defeat of Croatia early Sunday morning.

With the victory, the African champions improved to 1-3 to keep alive their hopes of advancing to the Quarter-Finals. Croatia, meanwhile, dropped to 2-2.

Croatia led 28-21 at the end the first quarter but Nigeria outscored them 22-11 in the second to take a 43-39 half-time lead. Michael Umeh hit 5-of-8 three-pointers for 16 points first half points.

Nigeria’s hot shooting from long range continued in the third quarter as they hit 4-of-7 attempts and saw their lead reach 50-35 when big man Ike Diogu connected from beyond the arc.

An 8-0 run spanning the end of the third quarter and start of the fourth enabled Croatia to cut the deficit to single digits, 70-61.

They would get within 74-71 on a Bojan Bogdanovic free-throw with 4:14 left to play but down the stretch Josh Akognon and Ebi Ere hit clutch three-pointers to secure the impressive win.

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