FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament: D’Tigress survive Korea scare

Nigeria women’s basketball team, D’Tigress, are back on track in their quest for qualification for the Rio Olympics after recording a hard-earned 70-69 victory over South Korea on Tuesday in their second game at the ongoing 2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament taking place in France.

The Nigeria women team lost to Belarus on Monday in their first game and were condemned to win against the Asians if they were to stay in contention for one of the five Olympic tickets in France.

Interestingly, it was South Korea that took the first quarter 13-20 in the tightly fought game but a last-ditch three-point shot won the game for Nigeria.

D’Tigress took the second, third and fourth quarters 15-13, 19-18 and 23-18 respectively to emerge winners.

Despite the win, the Nigerian ladies will have to wait for the outcome of the game between Belarus and South Korea which comes up on Wednesday, to confirm their qualification into the quarter-finals.

Meanwhile, other games billed for Tuesday will see France slug it out with New Zealand in Group A, Argentina go head-to-head with Turkey in Group B while in Group D, China and Spain will square off.