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
