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Commonwealth Games: D’Tigers lose to Australia for third straight loss

The Nigerian men’s national basketball team, D’Tigers, on Monday lost 55-97 to hosts Australia at the on-going Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast.The result meant D’Tigers finished bottom of Pool A with three straight losses, against New Zealand, Canada and Australia.

D’Tigers

The Nigerian men’s national basketball team, D’Tigers, on Monday lost 55-97 to hosts Australia at the on-going Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast.The result meant D’Tigers finished bottom of Pool A with three straight losses, against New Zealand, Canada and Australia.

The Australians, playing in front of a cheering home crowd, showed their intention from the start by dominating proceedings to win the first quarter 23-17.

The second quarter was even more fruitful for the hosts, as they outpaced D’Tigers and recorded 25 points against Nigeria’s 10.

It was more of the same in the third and fourth quarters, with the Australians emerging victorious 28-14 and 21-14 respectively.

Angus Brandt, with 16 points, posted the best personal delivery in terms of points for the Australians, as points delivery were effectively distributed among the players.

Daniel Kickert, Brad Newly and Jason Cadee all followed Brandt closely with 12 points each.

Nigeria’s top performer of the day was team captain Ikechukwu Diogu with 19 points.

Godsgift Achiuwa, who had eight points, was the closest to Diogu, summing up an abysmal outing by D’Tigers.

Monday’s result shows Australia topping Pool A with three wins out of three, while New Zealand, 82-60 winners over Canada in their final pool game and with two wins, finished second.

Canada recorded one win — against D’Tigers — to finish third in Pool A.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that D’Tigers’ stand-in coach Abdulrahman Mohammed had said before the match against Australia that he could not guarantee victory against the host nation.

Mohammed had said: “It will be silly of me to put my head out and say we are going to win. I am hoping we don’t get an embarrassing scoreline.”

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