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By Joe Apu
Nigeria’s D’Tigress suffered a 77–60 defeat to Korea on Thursday at the FIBA Women’s World Cup Qualifying Tournament held at the Astroballe Arena in France, a day after their commanding 70–37 victory over Colombia.
The Asian side controlled most of the contest, winning three of the four quarters 20–16, 22–19 and 19–9, while the second quarter ended evenly at 16–16.
Korea’s Jihyun Park led all scorers with 22 points, adding six rebounds and four assists to guide her team to victory. Nigeria’s Victoria Macaulay matched the scoring output with 22 points and six rebounds, continuing her impressive run after starring in the opening game against Colombia.Jisu Park also made a strong impact for Korea, finishing the game with an efficiency rating of 23 compared to Macaulay’s 17.The Korean side, coached by Soo Ho Park, effectively limited Nigeria’s attacking flow and capitalised on turnovers in a game that witnessed three lead changes and two tied scores. Korea converted Nigeria’s mistakes into 33 points off 22 turnovers, while the African champions forced only 14 turnovers in return.
Korea also dominated the fast-break opportunities, scoring 15 points compared to Nigeria’s eight. However, D’Tigress held a slight edge in second-chance points with 12 against Korea’s five and also led in points in the paint with 26 compared to the Asians’ 20.
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Nigeria head coach Rena Wakama acknowledged the physicality of the Korean side and pointed to turnovers as a major factor in the defeat.
“Korea is a great team but our turnovers were just too much,” Wakama said after the game. “We’re not going to lose sleep over this loss, but we will continue to work on getting better for our remaining games.”
Macaulay, who has been one of Nigeria’s standout performers in the tournament, described the encounter as highly competitive and noted that the team would learn valuable lessons from the defeat as they look ahead to their remaining fixtures.
Nigeria will next face Philippines on Saturday with a record 1 win and 1 loss.
