Women Basketball: Nigeria Defeat Mali to Qualify for Second Consecutive World Cup

Nigeria women’s basketball team, D’Tigress, have qualified for the 2022 FIBA Women World Cup to be hosted later in the year in France.

D’Tigress secured their spot following a 73-69 point win against Mali.

In a highly entertaining encounter, Nigeria had an unfavorable start that saw the Malians ending the quarter with a two-point lead, 22-20.

Sunday’s match was a decider between both Nigeria and Mali with one slot left to complete the list of three qualified teams from Group B.

Nigeria fought back and applied more pressure to win the second quarter 42-35.

Things continued to go the D’Tigress’ way as they took the lead to 20, ending the third quarter 64-44.

Not giving up on the result, the Malians fought back in the fourth quarter and whittled the lead down to six with less than two minutes on the clock. Things became tense and the Malians kept reducing the deficit.

Mali’s Aminata Traore cut the lead to just two points with 22 seconds on the clock. Nigeria called a timeout with 14 seconds left on the clock. Upon return, Nyingifa was fouled and made her two free throws to give Nigeria a four-point lead, thus sending D’Tigress to their second consecutive appearance at the World Cup.

Prior to their final match, Nigeria secured their first win in the group by defeating world number five, France, 67-65 point.

Ranked 15^th on the global ranking and 1^st on the continent, the D’Tigress qualified as runners-up of the group behind winners China and France who finished 3^rd.

At their last World Cup appearance, the D’Tigress reached the quarterfinals where they lost against world champions USA 71-40 point.