D’ Tigress Win Afrobasket Championship Title
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 by Rena Wakama- led ladies that D’Tigress 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 efforts 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.
