Coach Hughley rallies young D'Tigress after 14-point loss to China

After the 90-74 loss to China on the first day of World Cup qualifiers, Coach Otis Hughley has said his young D’Tigress is the future.

“China is really good but no excuses,” Hughley started. “I thought the girls did not quit. I thought they played hard; I thought they had a physical game and by the second half, they were up to the task.”

Hughley name-checked some players like Amy Okonkwo and said, “They have motives, they play hard and they are young. They are the future and I am so happy to get them these experiences, and here they are… And these are the players the team is going to belong to,” he added.

Okonkwo top-scored for D’Tigress with 15 points, four rebounds and two steals, followed by Pallas Kunaiyi-Akpanah, with 12 points and four rebounds.

Nigeria is grouped with China, France, and Mali for three tickets to the World Cup scheduled for Australia in September.

D’Tigress lost the first three quarters; 29-14, 25-22, and 25-16 but found their game in the fourth, winning 24-11, but at that point, it was too late as China led with as much as 27 points going into the fourth quarter.

Hughley continued, “Hopefully this kind of experience will do what it did for Ezinne [Kalu] and some other girls when they played Korea in France in 2015. This is their 2015 and they will go into the AfroBasket next year and it will be their AfroBasket.

“It was a hard-fought game,” Okonkwo reflected.

“I think we came out and gave our all and did the best we could. Of course, it means more work to do. We have to get back to the drawing board. There are two more games in two days and we just have to tighten up where we made mistakes and do better in the next game.