2019 FIBA Afrobasket: D’Tigress Beat Senegal To Retain Crown
The Nigeria women national basketball team, D’Tigress, have successfully defended the FIBA Women’s AfroBasket title they won two years ago.
To emerge champions of the 2019 Championship, the Nigerian ladies beat host Senegal 60-55 to capture back-to-back continental titles.
As in their previous games over the past few days, the atmosphere inside the Dakar Arena was defeaning and electrifying for the Senegalese, but D’Tigress held their own to emerge victorious.
The keenly contested final encounter was played on Sunday at the magnificent Dakar Arena with over 15,000 fans on hand cheering the home side.
With Sunday’s feat, D’Tigress became the first team to win back-to-back FIBA Women’s AfroBasket titles since Angola followed up their 2011 triumph with another in 2013.
For a place in the final, Nigeria went past Mali, 79-58, in Friday’s first semi-final while hosts Senegal had to work extra hard in overcoming a fearless and determined Mozambique team, 60-57 in the second semi final. The Senegalese were featuring their third straight championship title game.
Both Nigeria and Senegal have emerged as the best teams from the 12-team tournament and it has come as no surprise that each reached the final after four wins in as many games.
On their way to a second consecutive title, Nigeria defeated Tunisia (75-26), Cameroon (106-39), DR Congo (79-46) and Mali (79-58) by an average of 42.5 points while Senegal beat Cote d’Ivoire (77-36), Egypt (85-47), Angola (88-54) and Mozambique 60-57 by an average of 29 points.
After losing to Nigeria two years ago – not once but twice in Bamako – 12-time African champions, Senegal were hoping to become the first team to win the tournament at home since the D’Tigress claimed the 2005 continental in Abuja.
With D’Tigress successfully completing their mission, attention will now shift to the male team, D’Tigers that are meant to compete at the FIBA World Cup in China once the needed funds are provided. –With agency report
