Nigeria’s slamming and dunking status took a plunge at the weekend, as the country’s male and female teams both crashed att he Africa 3×3 Basketball Championships in Lome, Togo, as D’Tigers and D’Tigress both lost out in the semi-finals, sports247.ng reports.
Both results mean Nigeria failed in the target of cornering two titles this year, as D’Tigers were dethroned as champions on Sunday and D’Tigress could not improve on their past status in the competition.
D’Tigers beat Egypt 20-16 in the quarter-final but lost to their arc rivals Cote d’Ivoire 14-10 in the semi-finals, after which Nigeria then settled for third place by beating Democratic Republic of Congo 21-19.
In the women’s class, D’Tigress thrashed Niger 21-5 in the quarter-final but lost to Democratic Republic of Congo 16-18 in the last four, but could only get fourth place after a 17-19 loss to the hosts, Togo.
Cote d’Ivoire’s men and Mali’s women won gold by beating Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo respectively in the finals.
While Nigeria failed to keep their form from 2017, the runners-up back then, Cote d’Ivoire dominated this year’s men’s competition with a 5-0 surge, including a one-sided 14-6 win in the final against Uganda.
Mali made it back to back wins in the ladies class after defeating DR Congo in the final (19-13).
Cheick Traore was named MVP after leading Cote d’Ivoire to gold but men’s tournament top scorer was Abdul Yahaya of Nigeria.
