High flying D’Tigress now 34th globally

 

Nigeria moved up an eye-catching eight places up the ladder to 34th place globally after their memorable outing at the 2017 Afrobasket Championship in Bamako, Mali, which saw them set a national record of 8 wins out of 8 games to land the elusive silverware.

The nation female basketball team, D’Tigress made Nigeria proud last month, defeating the defending champion in both group stage and final to emerge the winner after waiting for twelve years for the coveted trophy. The victory came under the tutelage of coached Sam Vincent.

National Women Basketball team again emerged as one of the biggest climbers in the latest Nike FIBA World Ranking for Women.

The D’Tigress now ranked 5th in Africa behind Senegal (17th), Angola (18th), Mali (24th) and Mozambique (25th).

The Nigerian women were ranked 42 in the world in the 2016 ranking.

The Nigerian side defeated Senegal twice (group stage and final) and host Mali at the semifinals of the 2017 edition of the tournament.

The top 10 in the world are; USA, Spain, France, Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Turkey, Serbia, Brazil and China.

Reacting to this feat on Friday from Tunisia where the country’s men’s team (D’Tigers) were embarking on their Afrobasket title defence, factional President of Nigeria Basketball Federation  (NBBF) Engineer Musa Kida said the resultant leap into the 34th spot on the global ranking was a direct effort of the new federation to reposition basketball.

“The Afrobasket win in Mali never came on a platter of gold. It was as a result of the right things we did as a federation in bringing the changes necessary to compete for the title.

“Landing the trophy after 12 years can never be traced to luck but hard work, dedication and team spirit from all parties involved.

“We are not where we are going yet, but I can assure you that slow and steady will take us to our desired destination where Nigeria will be part of the top nations to reckon with in the game.”

 

---

…Victorious team to arrive Lagos today

Victorious D’Tigress will arrive the Murtala Muhammed International Airport Lagos today, Monday at 21:30hours after a successful 2017 Women Afrobasket campaign in Mali.

The contingent will arrive Lagos aboard Air Cote d’Ivoire after departing Bamako, Mali on the 28th August at 14.00 hours local time.

The team will be without Coach Sam Vincent, Mfon Udoka, Evelyn Akhator and Nyingifa Atonye who have all left from Bamako to their various bases due to club and personal engagements.

Akhator who was selected as one of the competition’s best five left for Chicago to play for her club Dallas Wings in a WNBA game while Nyingifa will join her club in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

 

---

RESULTS

EPL

Chelsea                                0 – 0        Arsenal

Man Utd              1 – 0        Everton

Bo’mouth            2 – 1        Brighton

C/Palace              0 – 1        S’ampton

Huddersfield      1 – 1        Leicester

Liverpool             1 – 1        Burnley

Newcastle           2 – 1        Stoke

Watford               0 – 6        Man City

West Brom         0 – 0        West Ham

Tottenham         0 – 0        Swansea

 

SERIE A

Crotone               0 – 2        Inter

Fiorentina           2 – 1        Bologna

Roma                    3 – 0        Hellas

Sassuolo              1 – 3        Juventus

AC Milan              2 – 1        Udinese

Napoli                   6 – 0        Benevento

Torino                   2 – 2        Sampdoria

SPAL 2013            0 – 2        Cagliari

Chievo                  1 – 1        Atalanta

Genoa                  2 – 3        Lazio

 

LA LIGA

Eibar                      1 – 0        Leganes

Levante                                1 – 1        Valencia

Getafe                  1 – 2        Barcelona

Real Betis            2 – 1        Deportivo

Atletico                                1 – 0        Malaga

Alaves                   0 – 3        Villarreal

Girona                  1 – 0        Sevilla

Las Palmas          1 – o       Bilbao

Sociedad              1 – 3        Real Madrid

 

BUNDESLIGA

Hannover 96      2 – 0        Hamburger SV

Bayern                  4 – 0        Mainz 05

Frankfurt             1 – 2        Augsburg

Stuttgart              1 – 0        Wolfsburg

Bremen                                1 – 2        Schalke 04

 

LIGUE 1

Toulouse             0 – 1        Bordeaux

Monaco               3 – 0        Strasbourg

Dijon                     0 – 1        St-Etienne

Guingamp           1 – 0        Lille

Nantes                 1 – 0        Caen

Troyes                  0 – 1        Montpellier

Amiens                 0 – 2        Marseille

Angers                  0 – 1        Metzlive

Rennes                 0 – 1        Nice

PSG                        2 – 0        Lyon