Nigeria Makes History, Becomes First African Team to Reach Olympic Quarterfinals in Basketball
Nigeria’s women’s basketball team made history on Sunday by becoming the first African team, male or female, to reach the Olympic quarterfinals in basketball. The team defeated Canada 79-70, with Ezinna Kalu scoring 21 points.
The Nigerians, who were 2-1 in the pool play, will now wait to learn their opponent in the quarterfinals. This is a significant achievement for the team, which had come to France looking for its first Olympic victory since the 2004 Athens Games.
The team celebrated their win by going to midcourt to start celebrating, with an assistant coach using her phone to record the moment. They also stopped to high-five the Canadians and returned to celebrating with a midcourt huddle.
Canada, ranked fifth in the world, leaves winless in three games, eliminated on the final day of group play for women’s basketball by a team ranked 12th.
The draw setting the quarterfinals follows the final game between Australia and host nation France. Five countries came in already having clinched berths, led by the U.S. trying to win an unprecedented eighth straight Olympic gold.
Nigeria failed to qualify for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and went winless in Tokyo. This women’s team was denied access to Nigeria’s boat for the opening ceremony on July 26, and now it will play Wednesday in Bercy Arena on the banks of the Seine River.
In other games, Belgium routed Japan 85-58, with Emma Meesseman scoring 30 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Japan was eliminated after winning silver three years ago at the Tokyo Games.
Belgium needed to beat Japan by 27 points to finish with a better point differential than China to keep playing. The Cats had a packed house trying to help, with Belgium a mere 20 miles away and China watching the scoreboard through the final three games to learn its fate.
Additional sources: AP
