Basketball: Gallant D’Tigers Out Of London 2012

Nigeria has been defeated 73 – 79 by France in a last group game. It was a narrow loss for the Injury riddled Nigerian team.

Speaking?on Nigeria's experience at London 2012 after France beat?Nigeria?79-73 in the men's basketball preliminary round Group A game at the Basketball Arena on Monday,???Koko Archibong said:?”I wish we could have got further but it's been a great experience. We wanted to take basketball in Africa another step further.”

“We came as a Cinderella team?and wanted to show we had a great team. We're not happy?but we enjoyed the experience and are grateful to have been here. We look forward to Nigeria being part of the Olympics in four years time. The whole experience has been positive.”

On today's match against France, he added:?“The Tunisia?game wasn't pretty in terms of how we can?play, but tonight they saw a little bit more of what we're capable of.”

Speaking on the defeat, Ike DIOGU (NGR)?explained:??”We started out slow and then in the second half we came out and played the way we should have been playing.”

Diogu lamented the loss of some players to injury. “We had a bunch of losses; Tony (SKINN), Ade (DAGUNDURO, NGR) and that definitely hurt us. We were just trying to get that win and it was tough without our point guards.”

Commenting on Nigeria's first appearance at the Olympic Games, he noted: ?“It's bitter-sweet. We were happy to beat the first team and get our first ever win but we are disappointed that we didn't show our best basketball. We are capable of playing better. We haven't been playing together for years like all these other teams, we have only been together a couple of months.”

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