Contrary to expectations, Nigeria’s men’s national basketball team, D’Tigers, yesterday lost their second game at the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympics to Germany. The game ended by 99 points to 92 in favour of the Europeans.
Following their narrow loss to Australia in their opening game, pundits felt the game against Germany would present D’Tigers the opportunity to get back in their grove in the quest for a second round ticket.
But that was not to be. Jordan Nwora led the scoring with 33 points and seven rebounds, Germany’s highest scorer, Johannes Voigtmann, ending with 19 points and seven rebounds performance.
The Germans had five players score in double figures and withstood an explosive game from Nigeria forward Jordan Nwora.
The win revived Germany’s hopes of qualifying for the next phase of the tournament, but it put Nigeria in danger of exiting the competition in the first round.
The next group B matches are on Saturday, with Germany playing Australia while Nigeria will face Italy.
The games are currently in the group stage made up of three groups of four teams each. First and second place teams from each group automatically go through to the knock-out phase, while the two best third-placed teams will also advance.
To qualify for the second round, Nigeria must now beat Italy and hope to finish at worst in third place. Two best third-placed teams will join the quarterfinal party.
Nigeria can also qualify outright if they beat Italy and Germany defeat Australia.
Meanwhile, Abiola Ogunbanwo, yesterday smashed Ngozi Monu’s longstanding Nigerian swimming record.
Before yesterday, no Nigerian woman had ever gone under a minute in the women’s 100m freestyle event. That is no longer the case as Ogunbanwo won Heat 1 of her favourite event in 59.74s at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
Competing in the very first heat of the women’s 100m freestyle event, Ogunbanwo finished ahead of Andela Antunovic of Montenegro (1:00.01), Nepal’s Gaurika Singh (1:00.11), and Mineri Gomez of Guam (1:04.00).
However, her timing was not good enough to take her through to the semifinals, as it was only the 50th best time in the event.
In the women’s 100m freestyle event, the time returned by competitors is all that matters in the heats, as only the fastest 16 swimmers get to advance to the semifinals.
