Nigeria relied heavily on defense to wade-off the stiff challenge pose by Cameroon in a group-B game on Sunday at the 22nd Afrobasket for Women.
Nigeria, who picked the second and third quarters by 20-10 and 13-11 points after tying the first quarter with her FIBA Africa Zone-4 strong side at 17 points apiece and lost the last quarter by 18-22 points showed better prowess on the board with 36 rebounds with the Lioness grabbing 34 rebounds, Nigeria was also slightly better on the offense with 12 assists to its opponent 7 for a final score-line of 68-60 points.
Head Coach of the Nigerian team, Ayo Bakare gave kudos to his Cameroonian counterpart for a job well-done.
Coach Bakare praised Coach Fabio Fossati of Cameroon for building a stronger and effective Cameroon team while applauding the performance of his players for fighting from the jump-ball to the buzzer.
“I must commend the Cameroon side for giving us a very good fight it shows the man at the helm of its technical affair (Coach Fossati) has really put in a great effort to build such a solid team because in my close to 20 years of coaching the Nigeria women national team I have never seen a Cameroon side that is so solid with great technical depth.
His Cameroonian counterpart, Coach Fossati congratulated the Nigeria team for the big win.
“I must commend the Nigerian team who threw everything back at us as we strive to make a mark by breaking the jinx of being the first Cameroon side to beat Nigeria in a long while.
“We try everything possible to break the Nigeria defense and stop their offense but their bench rose to the challenge to counter our plans, we have learnt great lessons from this loss and we hope to correct them in our next game against Angola.”
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