Nigeria's captain, Ike Diogu during the group A clash with Cote d'Ivoire in Tunis.
NIGERIA’S captain, Ike Diogu on Friday night put up a huge performance to inspire the defending champions D’Tigers to a narrow win 78-77 over Cote d’Ivoire in Rades, Tunis in a group A match of the FIBA 2017AfroBasket championship.
During his 33 minutes on the court, Diogu, the only member of the 2015 gold winning squad in Nigeria’s squad did a bit of everything for his team in the West African derby.
Apart from leading the all scorers chart with a game-high 31 points, the centre forward who last played for Jiangsu Monkey King of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), Diogu, also finished with eight rebounds as Nigeria saw off a resilient Cote d’Ivoire side, who led 74-69 with three minutes remaining.
Nigeria coached by US-based Alex Nwora led the first and second quarter 17-11 and 25-22, but lost the third and the last quarter to the Ivorians 11-17 and 25-27.
Earlier in the day, Mali and the Democratic Republic of Congo needed extra five minutes to find the winner of a breathtaking encounter.
Mahamadou Kante’s team-best 22 points proved crucial for Mali who outscored Congo 87-82 in another group A fixture.
Nigeria will tonight face Mali in the second group game.
The Gunners have slumped to four straight domestic defeats, seeing their hopes vanish...
"We've also brought in a serial winner of a coach, Carlo Ancelotti, who will add…
Aryna Sabalenka and Carlos Alcaraz, the duo from Tennis, were crowned Sportswoman and Sportsman of…
Lukaku's season has been blighted by a hamstring problem, limiting the striker to just seven…
“Alhaji Galadima was not just a football administrator but a pillar in the sports community....
Bournemouth are currently eighth in the Premier League following Saturday's win at Newcastle....
This website uses cookies.