Nigeria beat Angola, qualify for FIBA U-16 Africa Championship quarterfinals

Twenty-seven points from Junior D’Tigers’ shooting guard, Isah Farouk inspired Nigeria to a 90 to 57 points win over former champions, Angola on Tuesday in Praia, Cape Verde, venue of the on-going FIBA Africa U-16 Championship.

The win gave the Junior D’Tigers a quarterfinal ticket at the championship.

The Central Africa country started the first quarter aggressively with a systematic high pressing game but the boys from Nigeria calmly controlled the game beating the former champions 20-11 in the first quarter.

The boys extended their lead in the second quarter, ensuring that they went into the half time break with a massive moral boosting 23 points lead as they ended the quarter 43-23.

The Angolans were more determined in the third quarter of the game as they matched Nigeria’s strength and technical abilities, but still lost albeit by just three points, 22-19.

The Nigerian team did not take their foot off the gas, ensuring there was no comeback for the Angolans in the final quarter, which they took 22-15 to end the game with a 33 points difference.

The top performers for Nigeria were shooting guard, Farouk Isah with 27 points, small forward, Precious Ikpe with 19 points, small forward, Joy Ighovodjia with 14 points, while center, Rueben Chinyelu, and power forward, James Okemirie, finished the game with 13 points respectively.

Head coach of the team, Fubara Onyenabo said the result was far from what he expected, adding, however, that it showed that the boys paid full attention to what they were told.