Afrobasket: D'Tigress overpower Mozambique 80-69 in opener

.Battle DR Congo today

By Akeem Lawal
NIGERIA’S senior women national team. D'Tigress overpowered a resilient Mozambique outfit 80-69 for their first victory in Group B of the 2017 FIBA Women's Afrobasket tournament, in Bamako, Mali on Friday night.

Sportsbiz247.blogspot.com reports that Adaora Elon, Ezinne Kalu, Evelyn Akhator and Sarah Ogoke registered double figures in a match played at the Palais des Sports Salamatou Maiga, Bamako to ensure Head Coach, Sam Vincent began his second stint with the D’Tigress on an impressive note.

Nigeria will play her second game today against DR Congo by 4.15pm.

Vincent in a business-like fashion opted to start the game with Ogoke Sarah, Elonu Adaora, Madu Ndidi, Akhator Evelyn and Kalu Ezinne in his quest to make a statement at the 2017 FIBA Afrobasket tournament.

It was a case of a dominant Nigerian team led by Adaora with 17points and 7 rebounds bringing their experience to bare against the girls from Mozambique who were finding it difficult to cope with how well the D’Tigress were moving the ball around.

Despite the duo of Dongue Leia scoring 19points with 5 rebounds and Cossa Anabelaweighing in with 13 points, D’Tigress trio of Ogoke with 11 points, Akhator with 13points and Ezinne with 16points all weighed in with double digits to ease the work load on Adaora on their way to record their first win of the tournament.

With a total of 7 rebounds, team captain, Aisha Mohammed led the rebound table and closely followed by Adaora and Akhator with 6 rebounds each.

In other games of the Group, defending champions Senegal tipped off their title defense in style with a105-39  convincing victory over Guinea.

Egypt recovered from a slow start against a rather visibly stronger Democratic Republic of Congo side to win 99-72.

Soraia Deghady sunk an incredible 33 points, the highest count on the opening day while Mai Helwa picked a significant 13 rebounds as the Egyptians ticked their first item on their to-do-list.

Photos: @BballNaija