D’TIGRESS will begin their quest for Olympic Games glory today (Monday), against Australia at the Pierre-Mauroy Stadium in Lille, France.
Nigerian ladies under the stewardship of coach Rena Wakama will need more than determination and grit to overcome the Opals, as the Australians are affectionately called.
Nigeria’s female national basketball team has been improving on their games since the final phase of their camping in Germany.
During their stay in Deutschland, they played two warm-up games against Germany and Serbia, which they lost.
They lost to Germany 77-63 and went down to Serbia 70-62 points.
2019 FIBA Women’s Afrobasket Most Valuable Player, Ezinne Kalu and Promise Amukamara who are making a return to the team will complement the effort of 24-year-old, 6’4 feet tall centre, Lauren Jenee Nneka Ebo, who were part of the Olympic Games qualifiers in Belgium in February.
Captain Amy Okonkwo, Elizabeth Balogun, Nicole Enabosi, Pallas Kunaiyi-Akpannah, Olaoluwatomi Taiwo and Murjanatu Musa are notable faces in D’Tigress Den.
Nigeria’s best outing at the Games is 11th position.
Currently ranked third in the world, Australia have won five Olympic medals – three silver and two bronze medals – in women’s basketball to date with all their podium finishes coming in successive editions between Atlanta 1996 and London 2012.
The Opals were within touching distance of a gold medal at three consecutive Olympic Summer Games between Sydney 2000 and Beijing 2008 but had to settle for silver eventually after losing all three finals to the USA.
The Australian women’s basketball team, however, failed to progress beyond the quarter-finals in the last two editions. At Tokyo 2020, they were beaten by the USA in the last eight while their Rio 2016 campaign was ended by Serbia in the same stage.
Canada confronts host France in second Group B encounter.
Eighteen-Eleven Media