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D’tigress thrash Lioness to clinch 4th consecutive title; Nigeria Super Falcons target win over England in Monday WWC quarter

Nigeria’s female basketball team, D’Tigress on Saturday won the 2023 FIBA Women’s Afrobasket Championship for the fourth consecutive time after defeating the Lioness of Senegal at the BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda.

The 11-time African champions clinched their sixth championship with an impressive 84-74 score.

This feat achieved by the Rena Wakama- led ladies has given them the opportunity to compete for a spot at the women’s basketball event of the 2024 Olympics.

At the end of the first quarter, D’Tigress quickly established their dominance with a nine-point lead.

The Senegalese kept it close in the second quarter with a 24-21 margin for D’Tigress extending their lead to 12 going to the halftime break.

Senegal made so much effort to come back as they back played with all seriousness and were able to clinch the third quarter 26-19 reducing the deficit to five, in the second half.

D’Tigress grabbed a win with 10 points in the fourth quarter, regardless of the competitive game between the two best teams of the tournament.

The loss for Lionesses to the D’Tigress means that the former have recorded loss in four Afrosbasket finals (2005, 2017, 2019, and 2023), against the later.

The achievement of newly appointed D’Tigress Head Coach, Rena Wakama, as the first woman to lead a team to the Afrobasket title was also acknowledged.

The Most Valuable Player of the final went to Nigeria’s Amy Okonkwo who finished the final with 23 points, 10 rebounds, and 2 assists.

Earlier, to reach the final D’tigress on Thursday in the ongoing Afrobasket Women’s Championship crushed host country Rwanda, 79-48 asserting their dominance in the competition since 2015.

The senior women national team also achieved the feat of being unbeaten in 23 games.

Wakama’s D’tigress records in the competition are: 69-35 against Congo, 83-65 against Egypt, 59-52 against Mozambique and now 79-48 against Rwanda and now 84-74 against Senegal.

Meanwhile, Nigeria coach Randy Waldrum believes knocking European champions England out of the Women’s World Cup would be “transformational” for the sport in the country as the sides prepare to meet in the last 16 on Monday.

The Super Falcons have appeared at every Women’s World Cup going back to the inaugural edition in 1991 but their build-up to this year’s tournament was overshadowed by a row with their national federation over bonuses.

They had even threatened to boycott their opening game but put that behind them to draw with Olympic champions Canada and then beat co-hosts Australia.

Canada’s draw with the Republic of Ireland ensured that the Nigerian senior women team qualified for the last 16 and set up a clash with strongly-fancied England in Brisbane.

“It would be a huge win, obviously,” Waldrum said Sunday when asked about what knocking out England would signify.

“Already with what we have accomplished Nigeria is buzzing again, from what I understand.

“I don’t think people expected us to get out of the group and to get the results we have got, so I think it has already been a big success.

“But obviously if you can not only beat the Olympic gold medallists but turn around and beat the European champions then it would be something extremely special back home for all the people in Nigeria, and more importantly for this squad, for what they have worked so hard to do.

“So it certainly could be transformational in a lot of different ways.”

It is the third time that Nigeria have made it out of their group at the World Cup but they have never won a knockout tie.

Waldrum confirmed that star striker Asisat Oshoala is “fit and healthy” and said fellow forward Desire Oparanozie could feature for the first time since picking up an injury before the tournament.

He also said he was preparing his team to face an England side with, or without, Keira Walsh after the star midfielder missed the Lionesses’ last group game with a knee injury.

Walsh trained with the squad on Sunday for the first time since being stretchered off in England’s 1-0 win over Denmark in their second group game.

But England coach Sarina Wiegman could opt to stick with the three-woman defence which helped them outclass China 6-1 without Walsh, or revert to a back four.

“We have to prepare for both,” Waldrum said of the different tactical possibilities.

“As a coach I would expect her to go with a back three because they played ever so well in the last match with that and I don’t know why she would change.”

Of Walsh, he added: “Obviously she is a key player in their midfield for them.”

“But England also has so many weapons. You go down the list and you look at their players and all of them play in a high-profile setting so there are certainly more that can do damage to us than just her.

“They have given us a lot of challenges to prepare for and that will be just another one if she comes in.”