February, 25 2023.
Nigeria's Senior men's basketball team, D'Tigers made it two wins in as many matches on Saturday, in Luanda by beating Guinea 62-59 in their second Group E game of the African qualifiers for the 2023 FIBA Men's Basketball World Cup, to be co-hosted by three Asian countries; the Philippines Japan and Indonesia.
Having recorded too many turnover (25), on Friday while beating Côte d'Ivoire, Head Coach of D'Tigers, Ogoh Odaudu urged his players to cut down on their mistakes.
The first quarter was evenly fought as it ended 13 points apiece; but the Guineans propelled by their top scorer, Cheick Conde (25) pulled away in the second quarter, and led by a whopping 8 points, going into the fourth and final quarter.
It was at this point that a resolute D'Tigers of Nigeria, powered by Victor Ezeh (16) and Daramola Michael (16) fought back and convincingly won the decisive quarter 23-11, to wrap up a 62-59 victory.
Despite the hard fought win, Nigeria still needs to beat hosts, Angola, who are undefeated in the series, on Sunday, in Luanda; while hoping other results will go there way, with a view to seeing if they are able to pick one of the last two remaining African slots, for the upcoming World Cup.