Just like their male counterparts, Nigeria’s D’Tigress dramatically lost their first match at the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympics on Tuesday, Heritage Times reports.
The Nigerian team – who are making their first appearance at the Olympics since 2004, started off the campaign with 81-72 loss against world’s number one, USA at the Saitama Super Arena, Japan.
D’Tigress started the game on a high after they headed into the 1st quarter break with a three point lead against USA – the only time the team had led in the encounter.
However, the Americans stepped up their performance in the second quarter by opening a 12 point lead going into the 3rd quarter.
The Nigerian Ladies fought valiantly in the encounter but, their efforts were not enough to contain the US team with much bigger and experienced players.
The USA women are the Olympic champions and have secured their 50th consecutive Olympic win after narrowly escaping the rage of the Nigerian women team.
The US team lost their last Olympic game during the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, making them the favourites to win the duel.
D’Tigress had earlier lost to the US team 93-62 in an exhibition game in Las Vegas. But this time, they managed to narrow the margin by 9 points.
The West Africans will face France in their next game on Friday.
