Nigeria’s champions, MFM Women Basketball Team lost narrowly to FAP of Cameroon 62-60 on Tuesday to bow out of 2024 WBLA in Dakar, Senegal, Sports247 reports.
Having lost their first two matches against Al Ahly of Egypt and ASC Ville De Dakar of Senegal, 95-49 and 57-54 respectively, MFM needed an outright victory with large margin to stand a chance of qualifying as third best losers slot.
But the Nigerian ladies fell short as bow out of the competition, losing gallantly to FAP of Cameroon 62-60 in the opening match of the day.
The winner takes all encounter lived up to its billings as the Cameroonians took early advantage seizing the initiative by winning the first quarter by a margin 10 points at 22-12.
The Nigeria team fought back in the second round but lost narrowly 17-16 with FAP leasing the contest by 11 points at half time.
The game became closer in the third quarter as it ended all squared 12-12 at the end of the quarter with the Nigerian team behind with 11 points deficits.
Knowing what is at stake, MFM fought gallantly and won the fourth quarter with 9 points margin at 20-11, too short to eclipse the 11 points conceded at half time, losing the game at 60-62.
While FAP waits for results in Group B and Group C to know their fate of qualifying via the third best losers slot, MFM will only play classification games as their bid to win the 2024 Women Basketball League Africa, WBLA, is over after losing all their three group matches.
The WBLA is the elite basketball competition for the best 12 teams on the continent and the winner will be crowned best Africa Women Basketball team for the year.
