19th Fiba AWC: Nigeria beat Mali to last-4 ticket

Nigeria who was tied at five points same with Mali for the first time in many championship played like real Tigresses as they took the Malian to the cleaner from the blast of the referees’ whistle picking the first quarter 19-15 points.

The coach Scott Nnaji tutored side backed by vociferous supporters went all the way to take the game out of the sail of the malian in the second quarter which ended 24-08 for a first half results of 43-23 points thus opening the game by twenty points margin.

All efforts by the Africa zone-2 team (Mali) to reduce the gap prove abortive as the third quarter ended 14-11 points while the fourth and most crucial quarter ended 12-10 in favour of the host for cumulative scores of 69-44 points.

Captain of the side Mfon Udoka led others in points with 24 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals Mactabene Amachree followed with 9 points, Aisha Mohammed added 8 with the quartet of Mercy Okorie, Funmilayo Ojelabi and Rashidat Sodiq and Ugo Oha added 6 points each.

Our finding shows that the Nigerian team were promised a mouth watering incentive by the president of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, NBBF, Buba Gyang who hosted all officials to a grand reception on Xmas day to serve as motivation to the players and their handlers.

The NBBF boss was determined to ensure Nigeria's qualification for the 2006 Fiba World Championship for Women just like the Men who had earlier qualified for the Men’s world fiesta.

Nigeria will now play group-B leader Congo DRC in the second semi-final at 19.00 hours while Senegal will take on group-B runner-up Mozambique in the first semi-final at 16.00 hours.

In another group games decided Monday group-A leader Senegal defeated Togo 74-34 points to maintain her unbeaten run and in group-B Angola handed down a 64-36 defeat of Gabon while Mozambique hammered Niger Republic by 75-46 points.