• Confirms Women and Men’s tickets to Tunisia
By Joe Apu, Accra
Saturday night proved a mixed blessing for Nigeria as the men and women’s national U16 teams punched their tickets stars at the Eden Heights Basketball Arena here in Accra following wins against Ghana in the women category and Cote d’Ivoire in the men with a wide margin. Nigeria’s women team confirmed their superiority over Ghana in the two games against Ghana winning 73-24 and 65-17 to finish top of the table with 4 points as against Ghana’s 2 points from two games.The girls coached by Samson Sotuminu and former Nigerian international Taye Adeniyi were confident in play and left no one in doubt that were out to meet their set goal in Accra.
Credit for the victories goes to the entire team but stand outs go to Shehu Khadijat and Essien Favor and for scoring15 and 14 points respectively in the first game. The second game was no different as they kept Ghana under 20 points.
An excited Coach Sotuminu says his focus now on the task in Tunisia. “We’re glad that the first part of our job is done and dusted but the bigger task is in Tunisia and we need to get cracking as soon as we return to Nigeria to prepare. It won’t be easy but we’re determined to go all the way,” he told Sunday Sun Sports at the end of the championship.
Nigeria will be making a return to the championship after missing out from three editions since 2015 when the country won a bronze.
Mali are the defending champions and have kept the trophy since 2009 when the championship was established.
For the men’s team, Nigeria defeated Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana to emerge champions of the FIBA Africa Zone 3 under the leadership of Col. Sam Ahmedu (Rtd) as President.
Nigeria defeated Cote d’Ivoire 67-38 in the first game and fell to Ghana 47-45 in the second game to finish with 3 points ahead of Cote d’Ivoire with 3 points and Ghana with 3 points. However, Nigeria qualified with goal difference to their adavantage.
