“We didn’t play our game. We were not ourselves. What helped us secure the win on Monday we didn’t bring today.”
THOSE are the words of Nigeria head coach Rena Wakama after D’Tigress went down to the French in their second Group B encounter on Thursday.
She explained that it was a tough battle and a tough outcome for the team that is eyeing a place in the quarter-finals.
“It’s tough when you let another team shoot 63 percent inside the paint. It’s hard to beat anybody.”
Despite the defeat, coach Rena Wakama believes that the girls will fight back on Sunday against Canada. “We need to get back to our ways.”
Canada are yet to win a game since the basketball tournament started. They lost to France on Monday by the same margin Nigeria lost to the hosts, 75-54.
They were also beaten by Australia, which crumbled under the weight of Nigeria. It finished 70-65 in favour of the Opal.
The win means host France are through to the quarter finals of the women’s basketball tournament of the ongoing Olympic Games in Paris.
They secured their passage to the last eight with a 75-54 lockdown of Nigeria.
Nigeria had played with typical courage and on the front foot to almost keep pace with their opponents for much of the first half.However, the wheels came off for D’Tigress when France suffocated their offence completely and held them to single digits in the third quarter at just 8 points.
The depth of France was simply everything in this game – at least in stark contrast to Nigeria. The difference in bench scoring was enormous with the hosts racking up 37 points and their opponents only 9.
Nigeria’s 54 points are their lowest in a single game at the Olympics: they have now lost three games by more than 20 points in the competition and two of those happened against France (yesterday) and in the 2020 edition (87-62).
Next fixtures in Group B on Sunday:
Nigeria vs Canada
France vs Australia
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