The Nigeria Women’s national basketball team, D’Tigress, are off from the list of teams without a victory at the FIBA Women’s World Cup.
D’Tigress after losing their group opener against Australia on Saturday battled to a 74-68 victory over Turkey on Sunday to record their first ever victory at the flagship women’s basketball championship.
Sarah Ogoke was the hero for Nigeria in Sunday’s victory; dropping a team-high 22 points in the contest.
While Ogoke is happy to see Nigeria overcome Turkey, she has promised it was only the beginning of more to come.
“It’s not over yet and we’re just getting started,” she told Fiba.com “I’m not satisfied at all because to me it’s a big win, but we can’t feel comfortable until we beat Argentina and move into the next round.
“I have been playing on the national team for a while now and felt that I had a point to prove and Nigeria also had a point to prove. We’re not your typical African basketball country.”
“We have a lot of talent on this team and we have a lot of experience and we finally got the chance to show it.”
Meanwhile, D’Tigress head coach, Otis Hughley, has also expressed great delight with the performance of his girls even as he admitted that Turkey were no pushovers.
“Turkey has been through a lot to build that programme and for us to sneak a little shortcut like that. Wow, I was praying almost on my knees as we’re so inexperienced and young,” he said.
“We came through a lot of adversity and mistakes and were still able to fight off a couple of runs. We even held on with some poise when two of our main players fouled out.”
“I had been getting a little criticism for trying to get all the girls ready instead of focusing on the main stars, but I knew this kind of moment would come.
“This is not my first, second or third movie. I have seen it all too many times before in NBA, college and the FIBA game. I was just happy that my decision paid off.”
The win for Nigeria also completed an impressive African double against European opposition, with Senegal having taken a thrilling triumph against Latvia earlier on Sunday.
Following Sunday’s win, D’Tigress will be hoping for another good outing when they face Argentina in their next game on Tuesday.
Argentina have lost their first two games at the ongoing World Cup in Spain.
