It’s decision day for D’Tigress as Nigeria battles USA for semifinals ticket

To be or not to be! That is the question that the D’Tigress of Nigeria must answer today as they confront their counterparts from the United States of America, in one of the quarterfinal matches of the women’s basketball of the ongoing Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

You have to have a long memory to remember the USA not racing their way to the semifinals. Nigeria have already been a sensation, but could they really pull off a sporting miracle?
 
The D’Tigress have already sent positive shockwaves around the world at the women’s Olympic basketball by becoming the first African team to ever make the Olympics quarterfinals, but now they face the best in the business.

Treading new ground for African basketball, Nigeria have an opportunity to pull off not only the biggest upset in Olympic basketball history but also one of the biggest in sporting history.

Having already beaten both Australia and Canada, there is no doubt that Nigeria have made everyone sit up and take note. But the USA are built differently from most teams. The dominant force of this competition for so many years, they will be ready to continue that tradition.

Nigeria depends so much on Ezinne Kalu, who hadn’t played since Tokyo 2020, but once the playmaker walked back into her country’s locker room after three years away, everything changed. The proof of that is in this very fixture even taking place. She has inspired Nigeria with exceptional performances.

Perhaps first in line to try and halt her progress and influence will be Chelsea Gray, who might get the starting thumbs up for the USA. She is passing the rock six times per game herself and having a productive tournament, but stopping Kalu from making Nigeria tick is the priority.

The unprecedented success of Coach Rene Wakama and her team has been built around their rugged and relentless team defence that has contested shots, pressured the ball, and resulted in plenty of steals and transition scores.

But this is going to be put to the most rigorous test imaginable when they face a USA team capable of taking games away from opponents in the blink of an eye because of their firepower.

According to FIBA.com, Nigeria leads the competition in steals with 13.3 per game. They also punish turnovers more ruthlessly than the USA with 23.3 points per outing compared to 20.7.

The U.S. are dominant in multiple categories in the competition as leading scorers with 92 points per game, along with 49.5 per cent field goal shooting and they are also quality defensively with a table-topping 6.7 blocks per game.

Nigeria and USA met at the FIBA Olympic qualifying tournament back in February with the latter recording a commanding 100-46 success. Before them, they also met in a group phase game at Tokyo 2020, with the U.S. winning 81-72 in what was a super competitive encounter.