These cats are for real
by Iwedi Ojinmah 08 July 2012, 07:28
Nigeria’s D’Tigers recorded another upset in the ongoing FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Venezuela when they defeated European powerhouse Greece 80-79 in the second quarter-final match played on Friday.
Using their initial loss to the hosts as inspiration the team has not looked back and has now beaten the best of Europe in Lithuania and Greece back to back.
Coach Bakare's men are starting to believe in themselves and that is making them a very dangerous predator. Despite falling behind to Greece which started the onslaught on Friday right from the jump ball, they fought back to finish the first quarter 21-21.
Again the men from Troy tried to separate themselves from the pesky West Africans and they did taking control of the second quarter as they scored 21 points against Nigeria’s nine.
Anthony Skinn and Al-Farouk Aminu just as they did on Wednesday were not impressed and lifted their team’s spirit with penetrating passes and powerful dunks.
Nigeria out played Greece to the tune of 20-14 reminding the Spartans they they were in for a major fight.
D Tigers perseverance at the end of the day proved too much. Pillared in between that fact and the raw physicality of Team Nigeria the Greeks were the first to blink and even Olympiakos point guard, Vasileios Spanoulis, game-high 25 points and seven rebounds could not save them.
There is no doubt that these Nigerian cats are for real. They now progress to the OQT semis.
