Nigeria’s senior male basketball team, D’Tigers, have been booted out of the ongoing 3X3 World Cup in the Philippines.
The team crashed out on Sunday after they recorded their third loss in four Group D games.
The Nigerian team made up of Kano Pillars’ Yahaya Abdul, Dike Azuoma, David Godwin and Lucky Subel had earlier lost their first two matches on Friday against Ukraine (22-11) and Croatia (22-8).
The team recovered to beat Jordan 21-7 in their third game only to suffer a third loss following the 22-11 reverse against Latvia.
In the end, D’Tigers finished fourth from the five-team group with 51 points and a points average of 12.8 behind Croatia, Ukraine and group winners Latvia, while Jordan finished last.
Nigeria qualified for the tournament by winning the 2017 FIBA Africa 3×3 Championship.
Director of 3×3 in Nigeria Frank Jituboh, who led the team to the Phillippines, revealed after the Latvia game that he was satisfied with the performance of the team.
In his words via Punch, he said: “I am very satisfied with the performance of the boys being their first time at this level. The experience garnered here playing against the best teams around the world will be very important going forward.”
“The win against Jordan who are number 13 in the FIBA 3×3 rankings is a great boost to the team and we are eagerly waiting for the rankings at the end of this month to see the effect of our World Cup outing on our position.” He concluded.
