The USA women’s basketball national team will be heading to the Tokyo Olympics in a more buoyant mood.
The Americans who lost their two earlier test games finished their friendly schedule before the 2020 Olympics with an emphatic 93-62 victory over Nigeria’s D’Tigress on Sunday in Las Vegas.
Having seen the Nigeria men’s team stun their male counterparts some days back, the American ladies attacked Sunday’s friendly in a business-like fashion
The Americans held D’Tigress to just 30.6 per cent shooting while they shot 53.8 per cent overall. They also outscored Nigeria in all four quarters of the game, though only by one point in the third quarter.
The top performers for the US were A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart who led with 16 points and 10 rebounds and 14 points and six assists, respectively.
For D’Tigress, Atonye Nyingifa led with nine points. Atlanta Dream’s center Elizabeth Williams played 29 minutes, scored four points; meaning no Nigerian player scored in double figures.
In Sunday’s friendly, Chiney Ogwumike, who is the younger sister of Nneka was allowed to play for Nigeria, but SBNation reports she is appealing FIBA’s decision to classify her as a naturalized citizen.
Nneka on her part didn’t play as the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) is reviewing their cases.
Interestingly, their first game in the group stage will also be against Nigeria on July 27 in which D’Tigress will hope for a better result.
