President of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) Tijani Umar, describes the Nigeria senior national women basketball team’s ouster from the 2013 Afrobasket for women as “unfortunate.”
D’Tigress lost out of the championship to host Mozambique, seeing off the coach Scott Nnaji-led ladies by 74-77, in the quarter-finals at the Pavilhao do Maxaquene in Maputo.
Despite winning three out of the four quarters of the encounter, the Mozambique ladies held their nerves to stage a late comeback and claim victory.
Nigeria led 72-64 in the last quarter, but the host nation fought back to close the gap to 72-69 points with less than a minute to the buzzer and succeeded in overpowering their tired opponent, claiming the match 77-74.
Umar, who witnessed the match in Maputo, praised the Nigerian ladies for their efforts, stressing that “our girls lost to bad luck.
“If our girls had prepared the way the Angolans and Mozambicans prepared, nobody would have beaten them in this tournament. We had almost won the game before the host had the three-pointer in the last minute and the clock just ticked away. I must praise them for playing the game of their lives.
“I have always said that preparation for competitions should be early and thorough. We will go back and plan the way forward. We should have proper way of funding so as to be able to decide when to start camping our teams for competitions,” Umar added.
Both Angola and Mozambique qualified are through to represent Africa at next year’s World Cup.
Nigeria finished sixth in the competition.
