Minister of Sports Sunday Dare on Sunday hailed Nigeria’s female basketball team, D’Tigress after the picked Africa’s cole ticket to the FIFA World Cup to be held in Australia.
The Nigerian Girls, who are three-time Afrobasketball champions beat their Malian counterparts by 73-69 points on Sunday to qualify as Africa’s sole representatives.
They had earlier beaten the highly rated, world number five, France 67-65, after losing their opening game to China.
Dare praised the dunking queens for their patriotism, determination, and doggedness.
“I have always believed in your abilities to excel in whatever odds and I want to urge you to do us proud again,” he told the players.
The FIBA Women Basketball World Cup takes place in Sydney, Australia in September this year. The qualification is considered a good one by lovers of the game who insists it would give the girls an opportunity to rub shoulders once more with the top basketball nations in the world. It would be recalled that the girls posted a dismail outing at the last Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
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D’Tigress’ lost three games to China, France and USA to book their exit in the group stage.
The FIBA World cup will hold from September 21 to October October 1 and many believe that the D’Tigress would rise to the occassion.