Nigeria’s dream in the basketball event of the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games came to a sad end yesterday when the women national team, D’Tigress, lost their third group game of the competition to Japan by 102 to 83 points.

Rated as among the dark horses in the competition, the Nigerian women, like the men, surprised so many with their failure to rise to the occasion, losing all three group games in a row.

After their earlier defeats by the United States and France in Group B, some optimists believed yesterday’s game against Japan would be the turning point for the Otis Hughley-tutored girls, but they fell to the hosts by 102 to 83 to put paid to every Nigerians’ hope of getting something out of basketball in Tokyo.

Japan won the first quarter by 30-22 with most of their points coming from three-pointers, took the second quarter by 21 to 16, and also won the third by 33-19 before finishing the business in the fourth quarter 26 to 18.

Nigeria’s men’s team, D’Tigers, had earlier exited the competition after three straight losses to Australia, Germany, and Italy.