MEMBERS of the national women basketball team, D’Tigress, believe Nigeria can qualify for the women basketball event of the Rio 2016 Olympics if the country started preparations for the qualifiers on time.

The Olympics qualifiers will hold in Nantes, France, in June with Nigeria placed in Group C alongside Belarus and South Korea.

Speaking after the draws held at the FIBA headquarters in Mies, Switzerland, an excited D’Tigress centre, Olayinka Sanni, told basketballwithinborders.com, “we need to physically and mentally prepare ourselves. We all know nothing [good] comes easy and we must put in the work and sweat to get it.”

Sanni, who won a championship in her rookie year with the Detroit Shock in the WNBA, is particularly optimistic that D’Tigress will win a spot at the WOQT in France. “I really do believe that preparation is key [to Rio]. We know what we have ahead of us and just need to come together and start working towards it,” she said.

D’Tigress will play its first game against Belarus on June 13, while its second game of the group stage will be played the following day, June 14.

The Nigerian senior female basketball team will have the opportunity to rest for two days afterwards (15 and 16 June) before proceeding to the quarterfinals stage on Friday June 17.

The Nigeria D’Tigress and Cameroun will represent Africa at the 2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Women. Nigeria finished third behind Cameroun, hosts of the 2015 Afrobasket Women in Yaounde, while Senegal picked an automatic ticket to the Rio Games by winning the Afrobasket Women Championship.

Nigeria’s senior female basketball team last appeared at the Olympics in Athens 2004, which was also its first ever trip to the Olympics.

The 12 teams that will compete in the 2016 FIBA WOQT are Argentina, Belarus, Cameroon, China, Cuba, France, South Korea, New Zealand, Nigeria, Spain, Turkey and Venezuela.

The four winners of the quarterfinals and the winner of the fifth place game will qualify for spots at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

• Culled from www.basketballwithinborders.com