Africa’s Defending champions, the D’Tigress of Nigeria on Tuesday made a meance meat of their counterparts from Cameroon taming them 106-39 in a one-sided tie.
The D’Tigress who defeated Tunisia in their first game dumped the Cameroonian girls to book their place in the quarterfinals of the 26th edition of the FIBA Women’s AfroBasket.
Four players scored 14 points apiece including captain Adaora Elonu, Aisha Balarabe, debutant Promise Amukamara and Ify Ibekwe while point guard Ezinne Kalu added 12 points to inspire Nigeria to her biggest win at this tournament so far.
This performance was a statement of intent from the West Africans who bossed the paint picking an incredible 54 rebounds as compared to Cameroon’s 18. Of the 54, Elonu picked eight while Evelyn Akhator made it her business to get seven to her name.
Nigeria led 17-0 in the first quarter before Cameroon somewhat found their feet to finally score but even then the gulf in class was visibly evident. The Lionesses body language said it all.
Nigeria led 49-23 at the half time break and resumed play in the third quarter with the same intensity with which they started the game.
They executed a full court press and completely sent the Cameroon guards into disarray much to the shock of head coach Natosha Cummings-Price who could not believe her eyes.
Ibekwe, Balarabe and Atonye Nyingifa wore their hearts on their sleeves and threw everything on court and in the same spirit Kalu was immense at the top.
In the end, Nigeria was too strong for their neighbours Cameroon who had no answers to all the questions D’Tigress threw at them throughout the game.
