Nigeria’s D’Tigress win historic fourth consecutive African title

The Nigeria national women’s basketball team, D’Tigress, have won their fourth consecutive title after defeating Senegal 84-74 in the final of the 2023 FIBA Women’s Afrobasket tournament.

Nigeria became the second team to win the title four consecutive times after Senegal achieved the feat earlier.

After twelve years without any trophy, D’Tigress were crowned champions in 2017 and have followed up with victories in 2019, 2021 and now 2023 in amazing fashion.

Going into this tournament, the squad were said to have been made up of ‘rookies’, but they showed class, performing beyond expectations.

D’Tigers put up an impressive performance to defeat hosts Rwanda in the semifinal, setting up a mouthwatering fixture against Senegal.

Premium Times reports that the Nigerian girls started the first quarter on a bright note, winning 19-10, but the margin got narrower to 24-21 after the second quarter.

With a 43-31 point lead at half time, D’Tigress were halfway through to achieving their target.

But as one would expect, the Senegalese Ladies came fighting back after halftime, and they indeed won the third quarter, 26-19 to reduce Nigeria’s lead going into the final quarter to just five points.

It was a fight to finish at the BK Arena in Kigali on Saturday as D’Tigress won the nervy last quarter 22-17 and effectively won the game 84-74.