The Nigerian senior men’s basketball team who were the
competition’s champions in 2015 had qualified for this Qualification to
Quarter-Finals fixture by finishing second from Group C.
But at the Kigali Arena on Tuesday against Uganda, who
finished the group phase as Group D’s third-placed team, the Nigerian side
simply failed to come to the party.
They lost 12-24 and 19-20 in the first two sets to trail by
13 points in the opening half.
After an 18-23 loss in the third quarter further worsened
their situation to trail by 18 points, they fought back to win the fourth
quarter 19-13.
This was, however, a little too late as Uganda went away
with a 12-point lead to advance into the competition’s quarter-finals where
they will face Cape Verde on Thursday.
Nigeria’s top performer in the game against Uganda was
Uzodinma Utomi.
He scored 23 points, with three rebounds, two assists, one
steal and two blocks.
Andrew Edogi also had seven rebounds, and Ikenna Ndugba six
assists.
In other Qualification to Quarter-Finals fixtures played on
Monday, Angola had beaten Egypt 70-62 to book a Wednesday quarter-final meeting
with Senegal.
Also, Guinea beat hosts Rwanda 72-68 to advance to a
quarter-final meeting with Cote d’Ivoire on Wednesday.
The last quarter-final fixture will hold on Thursday with
Tunisia taking on the winners of the South Sudan versus Kenya fixture which was
ongoing later on Tuesday.
The competition, which now holds every four years, will end
on Sunday.
0 comments:
Post a Comment