Nigeria made it back to back finals of the Afrobasket beating Senegal 76-71 points on Friday.
Bryant Mbamalu had 19 points and 7 rebounds , Ike Iroegbu added 18 points and 3 rebounds , Ike Diogu scored 17 points and 14 rebounds. His second double-double in two consecutive days while Ike Nwamu added 10 points and 2 rebounds.
Both sides took time to get into their rhythm but the game later gained momentum in the second quarter . With less than 12 seconds on the clock, Nwamu lashed in a three point shot to take the tally 15-12 after the game was tied (12-12). At the end of the first half, Iroegbu and Diogu were already on 10 points each while the latter had already started cruising on a double-double, 10 rebounds.
Second quarter was however halted for about 35 minutes due to a shattered backboard. With 6:04 remaining, Maleye N’doye damaged the board following a hard dunk he made. It was a repeat of 2015 Afrobasket; Stanley Okoye’s dunk also damaged the backboard and it had to be replaced before play could continue.
Maune Ndour scored 14 points and 4 rebounds , Gorgui Dieng added 14 points and 9 rebounds, Clevin Hannah had 13 points and 7 rebounds while Mouhammad Faye scored 10 points and 4 rebounds for Senegal.
The co-host struggled on the offense and could hardly cope with the physical approach of the D’Tigers.
Once again the Senegelese fail to beat Nigeria in back to back Afrobasket semi-finals.
Defending champions Nigeria will play host Tunisia in the final on Saturday at 6pm.
Pls, can someone explain how Senegal an Tunisia are co-hosting?
Some group games were scheduled in Senegal while others in Tunisia. After the group games , the teams that progressed to the quarter finals traveled to Tunisia and that’s why there was a long break between the last group games and the quarter finals . All these happened when the original host couldn’t meet up so FIBA had to do a joint hosting of the games