It was a historic day for D’Tigress at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy arena as they defeated World number 5, Canada 79-70 to become the first ever African team to win two games and qualify for the quarterfinals in Olympic history.
After their loss to France, D’Tigress captain Amy Okonkwo expressed in an interview with Making of Champions on how historic it would be for the team to qualify for the quarterfinals. Her intentions came into fruition as the team brought their A-game in their last group showdown against Canada.
In the first quarter, D’Tigress started with a 6-0 run, then extended to a 10-point lead but the Canadians who were gunning for their first win at this Olympics, fought hard to close the quarter in a tie of 18-18.
The second quarter saw the Canadian team fighting so hard to get a sizeable lead over Nigeria but the D’Tigress refused to back down edging them in field goals percentage to close the gap to four points at halftime in 37-41.
D’Tigress took the bull by its horns in the third quarter, producing their best performance at this Olympics as they dominated with 23 points. Canada could only respond with 5 buckets.
The African Champions put an end to Canada’s Olympic journey in the fourth quarter. Although Canada scored more points in the final quarter, the damage had already been done in the previous quarter.
Nigeria finally got back at Canada who defeated them at the FIBA Women’s World Cup in 2018 by just a point.
Ezinne Kalu was the clutch player of the entire game, netting a total of 21 points, 2 assists and 3 rebounds.
