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By Joe Apu, Abidjan
Angola on Sunday compounded Nigeria’s chances of qualifying for the 2023 Cup as they posted a 70-67 points win in the last Group match here in Abidjan.
Angola who before now had beaten Uganda 84-62, followed up with a hard fought 65-58 win over Cape Verde and against Nigeria, the 11-time AfroBasket champions proved a tough nut for Nigeria in a game that saw Nigeria recording 22 turnovers.
Nigeria’s D’Tigers will now wait for the last window in February 2023 to battle for one of the five slots to be at the World Cup.
The game saw seven ties with four in the first quarter and a defensive second quarter had scores at 29-27 in favour of Nigeria. On resumption of the third quarter, Angola utilised every opportunity from the poor ball handling of Nigeria and the turnovers to catch up scores at 44-44 with Childe Dundao’s drive and Jilson Bango closed the quarter with a dunk for a score of 50-45.
Childe Dundao turned out the secret weapon of Angola as he went hard on the Nigeria defence with his drives and dribbles that earned him a total of 10 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal. The 24 year-old point guard standing at 5’6” caused the Nigeria team troubles creating scoring opportunities for his team.
Angola were 43% (26/61) in field goals scoring 20 points from turnovers and 40 points in the paint with 22 points coming from the bench. Though, Amanze and Metu scored 18 points and 17 points respectively, it was not enough to help Nigeria.
