D’Tigress guard, Sarah Ogoke was in brilliant form on Sunday as she scored 22 points to lead the D’Tigress to their first ever FIBA Women’s World Cup win.
It took Nigeria senior women’s national team a second appearance to achieve this feat in Tenerife, Spain. Their first appearance was in 2006.
The D’Tigress played their hearts out to beat number 7 ranked team, Turkey 74-68 at the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Arena.
Ogoke who had a pretty quiet outing in the first game, led the offence with 8/16 of her FG, 4 of 8 from the perimeter and 100% free throws made. She also contributed 4 rebounds and 3 assists in 29 minutes played.
D’Tigress were heading to the break when Ogoke splashed a dagger at the sound of the buzzer to reduce the deficit to 3 points (29-32). She had 12 points at the end of the first half and 3 assists.
With 3 minutes left in the third quarter, Nigeria stretched the lead to 14 but was reduced to four with 1:29 left to play. Nigeria did enough to ensure they record their first victory at the World Cup and become the second African team after Senegal to win a game in the group stage of the FIBA Women’s World Cup.
Evelyn Akhator had a double-double, 13 points and 10 rebounds.
They will next play Argentina on Tuesday.
