D'Tigers pick Afrobasket ticket with victory over Cape Verde
Nigeria's senior men's national team, D'Tigers closed the decide your destiny window of the 2025 Afrobasket Qualifiers with another sterling outing on Sunday against Cape Verde to make it 3-0.
Caleb Agada, Talib Zanna, and Ike Nwamu were the star performers in the 77-62 win over Cape Verde, who stunned them in the first window last year in Monastir, Tunisia.
Agada recorded 23 points, 13 for Zanna and Nwamu made 11 points, 7 short of his mark against Uganda.
The two home base players who traveled with the team, Ifeanyi Koko Jr and Ibe Agu, were in action on Sunday.
On the other hand, Shane Da Rosa had 10 points, and Ivan Almeida hit 15. Patrick Lima, Patrick Spencer, and Kennedy Gomes Fernandes all made 8 points each, but that could not save the roaring Tigers from with royal green and energetic white.
The victory over Cape Verde means D'Tigers, under the leadership of Abdulrahman Mohammed, took all three games in style while Cape Verde had 3-0 in the first window and ended the final window 0-3.
Already, the final lineup for the 2025 Afrobasket Championship is complete.
They include the host and eleven-time African champions Angola, Egypt, and Senegal with five diadems each; three-time winners Tunisia and Cote D'Ivoire, which has two titles to their name, and will be in the finals later this year.
Nigeria - the 2015 champions came from 0-3 in the first Qualifying Window to seal their journey to the Angolan capital with some tantalizing, scintillating, and mesmerizing performances against Libya, Uganda, and Cape Verde.