Nigeria’s D’Tigress will meet their group opponents for the fourth time on October 5 in the Olympic qualifying tournament, as they seek to equal the record of four consecutive Women’s African Cup of Nations (WAFB) titles held by Senegal.
The D’Tigress qualified for the last stage of the qualifying tournament in August, when they beat the Senegalese team 84-74 to become the fourth African team to win the WAFB four times in a row.
In the final, D’Tiger forward AYEMI OMONKWEW was named the MVP of the tournament after scoring 23 points with 10 rebounds and 2 assists.
This was the fourth meeting between the two teams with the D’Tigress having won the first encounter 64-57 in 2005, the 2017 rematch 65-48, and the 2019 encounter 60-55. Nigeria extended their winning streak to 23 games.
In addition, D’Tigress head coach Rena Wakama became the first female coach in the history of the competition, which began in 1966, after 57 years of male domination in women’s basketball in Africa.
Wakama had a short playing career before joining her current team in 2015, just after graduating from college. She also travelled to Cameroon with the 2015 Women’s Afrobasket team, where Nigeria finished third. Wakama claims that her name was not on the Nigerian national team’s roster for that tournament.
Prior to starting her coaching journey, Wakama played for Nigeria at FIBA’s Africa Champions Cup for women.
D’Tigress are now the 11th team in the world to have never lost a game against Cameroon in the 2015 semi-finals of the Women’s AfroBasket, according to FIBA’s update.
The draw will take place on Thursday, October 5, in Hungary. It Set to take the game to the next level, the team continue to motivate young basketball players all over Africa.
