Nigeria J’Tigers Beat Uganda to Book FIBA U19 World Cup Place 

Nigeria’s U18 Women, J’Tigress have booked a ticket to the FIBA U19 World Cup following their 71-67 pound-for-pound victory over Uganda in a match played in Pretoria, South Africa yesterday.

Nigeria will take on Mali in the final match billed for today after the Malians who are also the defending champions of the competition dispatched Cameroon in the first semi-final match yesterday.

The J’Tigress match against Uganda was played practically at the clutch with every loose ball aggressively fought for. Little signs of victory showed for Nigeria early in the game as J’Tigress won the first quarter 21-20. They maintained their grip and led the match at 45-39 through the break. The Nigerian ladies would not give up on their lead and the third quarter ended 61-54 for Nigeria. The push and shove of the last quarter yielded little or no fruit for the East Africans as Nigeria smiled at the buzzer with the score 71-67.

The semi-final game between J’Tigress and the Ugandan ladies was the second in this competition. They won the last group match against Nigeria 80-64 but the conditions were quite different. In that first match about nine members of the J’Tigress team were down with flu.