Izuchukwu Okosi
Nigeria’s senior women’s national basketball team, the D’Tigress late Thursday night (early Friday morning in Nigeria) suffered a setback in their quest to qualify for the 2022 FIBA Women Basketball World Cup qualifiers in Sydney, Australia.
The Nigerian ladies were defeated by their Chinese opponents 90 to 76 points in the first group B game in the qualification stages.
D’Tigress went down in the first quarter 29 to 14 points and then 25 to 22 in the second quarter.
The Asians won by 25 to 16 points in the third quarter but in the fourth and final quarter, the Nigerian women had the upper hand, taking the quarter by 24 to 11 which was a tad late to recover from the earlier results.
Pallas Kunayi-Akpanah was the stand-out performer for D’Tigress, hitting 12 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 steals.
Despite the defeat, the newly re-elected factional president of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, NBBF Engr Musa Kida said the women will pick a ticket for the World Cup.
Kida who was returned as NBBF President inna factional Congress in Being Edo State last month said the Tigress have what it takes to pick the ticket from the group, that also include France and another Africa representative, Mali.
His view is also shared by the Vice President of the NBBF Babatunde Ogunade. He explained that the team was hurriedly put together but will get better with every game.
Ogunade, stressed that all the teams in group B are very formidable but D’Tigress will navigate their way to Sydney, Australia come September for the finals.
Before meeting their West African neighbours on Sunday, D’Tigress have a date to keep with France on Friday for their second group B outing.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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