Though all hopes are not lost yet, the chances of Nigeria making it to the knockout stages of the Olympics for the first time is now hanging in the balance.
The Men’s Basketball team – D’Tigers, suffered a surprise 99-92 defeat to Germany in Saitama.
Having lost to Australia 86-67, many had been expecting D’Tigers to bounce back and defeat Germany but it wasn’t to be despite the great contribution of Jordan Nwora who scored 33 points in a match where other players didn’t show up.
It was another lacklustre performance from most of the team as they looked a shadow of themselves especially after their pre-tournament performances against the USA and Argentina.
D’Tigers struggled throughout the match especially at the free throws where they only managed to convert 7 out of 13 while the Germans converted 19 out of 23.
Head coach Mike Brown will have some strong words to say to his team especially as only two players [Jordan Nworah – 33 points and Miye Oni – 15 points] were able to make double digits while the highly-rated Jahil Okafor (who just won the NBA with the Buks) was nowhere to be found as he scored on 9 points.
Though the chance has grown slimmer, D’Tigers can still make it to the last eight of the tournament as one of the best 3rd placed teams if they can muster a win in their final match against Italy on Saturday by 5:40 am Nigeria time.
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