Nigeria’s senior national basketball team, D’Tigers has qualified for the playoffs for the qualification of the 2012 summer Olympics to be held in London. Nigeria will compete against 11 other countries in the 12-team FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament where three places are up for grabs. To qualify for the playoffs, Nigeria defeated 2009 runner-up, Cote D’Ivoire by 77-67 points to finish third yesterday.
The Nigerian side fell to African basketball superpower, Angola on Saturday in one of the semi final matches and had to put the defeat behind them to challenge for the playoffs slot reserved for the 2nd and 3rd team. Nigeria won 20-17 and 20-10 points in the first and second quarters to take a 13 points lead going into the break.
Nigeria was slowed down in the third quarter by the Ivoriens who bounced back to pick the quarter by 18-23. But it was the Coach Ayo Bakare tutored Nigerian side that carried the day after a 19-17 points win in the fourth quarter to end the 2011 Afrobasket championship for men with a bronze medal. The bronze is a slight improvement for Nigeria whose best finish in 2009 was a 5th placement. The venue for the Pre-Olympic Games ticket is yet to be named.
Nigeria Derrick Obasohan led the D’Tigers’ quest with 19 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists, Michael Umeh had 14 points, 8 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 assists while the duo of Ikechukwu Ofoegbu and Ejike Ugboaja added 13 points, 5 rebounds and 11 points, 10 rebounds respectively.