Nigerians bemoan D’Tigers loss to Senegal. Some supporters of the Nigerian basketball team D’Tigers, on Thursday in Abidjan described the quarter-final loss to Senegal in the ongoing African Nations Basketball Championship (Afrobasket) as painful. The Nigerian side which progressed unbeaten to the quarter-final lost 64-63 to Senegal on Wednesday. Apart from ending the team’s dream of lifting the title for the first, the loss also ended its bid to book a place in the FIBA World Championship. The Tigers had beaten Mali 74-59, Congo 93-75, Cameroon 91-84 in the first round, and Central African Republic 112-75 in the second round. Some of the supporters who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria after the match said the slim loss was heartbreaking and unexpected, judging by the performance displayed since the beginning of the tournament. President of the Association of Nigerian Youth in Cote d’Ivoire, Bright Moses, said the loss to Senegal, dwindled the morale of supporters. “It was actually not a good day for the team; we saw them bungle similar opportunities that they utilised in the previous matches. They clearly did not come out with the kind of force we saw in the previous games, we all came out of the venue dampened,” he said. Another supporter, Nkono Maximus, a Nigerian trader based in Abidjan, described the loss as “cutting short the joyous moments” brought to Nigerians in the country since the game began. “Truly, this is not where we hoped to end, it was painful but we must take it as one of those things in sports. When we won, some persons mourned and wept, today we have lost, it happens in the world of sports,” he said. Another Nigerian, Ruth Isibor called on the team not to be dismayed by the loss but to go back to the planning table for future competitions. “It is true that our hopes and joy have been cut short, but we must go back and plan, we have a team that can go far’’ she said. The 2013 edition is Nigeria’s 25th appearance in the championship since its premier edition in 1965.
Posted on: Sat, 31 Aug 2013 12:31:48 +0000
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