2018 FIBA Women’s World Cup: D’Tigress crash out after losing 71-40 to USA

Nigeria have been eliminated from the 2018 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup going on in Spain after losing to the United States of America in the quarter final stage.

D’Tigress lost to the reigning world champions 71-40, to bring an end to their magical run which drew applause from far and near.

Surprisingly the Nigerian girls took the first quarter 17-9, but lost the steam to sustain the tempo in the subsequent quarters, thus allowing the Americans take over.

USA led 27-23 in the second quarter and 10-12 in the third quarter. Nigeria had no answer to the
firepower of their opponents in the fourth and last quarter as they were outplayed 25-5 to end scores
at 71-40.

Otis Hugley’s led side came into the encounter with three consecutive victories, like USA after three
straight wins in the group encounters.

It was Nigeria’s second defeat of the tournament after losing to Australia 86-68 in their opening game.

Read Also: FIBA Women’s World Cup: D’Tigress overcome Greece 57-56 to face USA in quarters

Nobody had expected the Africa champions to get this far, but they defied the odds after securing three
victories in a row against Turkey, Argentina and Greece before meeting USA.  They would surely hold their heads high as they return to the country.