Vincent prunes squad as Orlando D’Tigresses set for Lagos

D’Tigresses Coach, Sam Vincent has pruned his squad to nine players, as the team gets ready to arrive in Lagos for the final preparations for the Mali 2017 Afrobasket Championship, reports extrasportsnigeria.com.

Vincent, who made a return to Nigerian basketball this summer, said he was very proud of the players he worked with in nearly the last two weeks.

In a FACEBOOK post late yesterday, Vincent wrote, “This is a great group of young ladies that have been working very hard in camp. Proud of all of you! And looking forward to meeting the Nigeria-based women soon.”

The camp in Florida formed the second part of the preparations for the women’s AfroBasket 2017 holding in Mali from August 18 to 27. The players in the Nigerian league and those based in Europe, who were already on holiday in the country, were also in camp simultaneously in Lagos from July 24. Both groups will merge to produce the final 12 players for Bamako.

A member of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) and President of FIBA Africa Zone Three, Sam Ahmedu confirmed that Vincent would arrive in Nigeria with only nine of the players from Orlando.

Ahmedu said, “I can confirm the number because the coach has briefed us on the job so far. The numbers will be completed from the Lagos camp.”

The NBBF Vice President, Babs Ogunade also confirmed that the ladies in Orlando would leave their U.S. base on tomorrow for Nigeria.

Nigeria won for the first time in 2003 in Mozambique under Coach Vincent and successfully defended the title with Ayo Bakare as coach in 2005 in Abuja. Nigeria finished third in the 2015 edition held in Yaoundé, Cameroun after beating rivals Angola 65-55 in the third place game.