FIBA W’Cup: D’Tigers beat hosts China, secure 2020 Tokyo Olympics spot

Nigeria men’s Basketball team, D’Tigers came out victorious in their final FIBA World Cup classification game as they defeated hosts, China.

The victory on Sunday was Nigeria’s third consecutive win, having seen off South Korea in their final group stage game and defeated Cote d’ivoire in their first classification game.

D’Tigers failed to reach the second found of the competition after losing to Russia and Argentina, but they have secured a spot in next year’s Olympic Games by the reason of Sunday’s win.

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Nigeria defeated hosts China 86-73 in front of a sellout crowd in Guangzhou to become the first team to land in Tokyo after finishing as the highest-ranked African team at the World Cup.

The hosts, who were also seeking Olympics ticket, won the first quarter, 21-19 points but Nigeria asserted their authority to end the first half, 35-31 points.

D’Tigers went on to clinch the 3rd and 4th quarters, 25-20, 26-22 on the day that 4 players recorded double figures.

Josh Okogie who shot 16 points, 3 assists and 5 rebounds to help his team to a win was unanimously voted as the man of the match while Nnamdi Vincent scored 14 points, 2 assists and 1 rebound.

Ekpe Udoh and Chimezie Metu scored 13 and 11 points respectively as the D’Tigers recorded the highest number of wins (3) in a single World Cup.

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