Nigeria Basketball Team To Make Olympic Debut In London
The Nigeria Basketball Team will make its Olympic debut at the 2012 London Olympic Games.
The Nigeria team earned the final Olympic spot after beating the Dominican Republic 88-73 on Sunday. Russia and Lithuania also earned spots at the London Olympics.
Reuters reports that the Nigeria Basketball Team, as well as Russia and Lithuania, will join Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, France, Great Britain, Spain, Tunisia, and the United States in London.
The Nigeria team was led by Ike Diogu who scored 25 points (including 10 in the closing minutes) and grabbed 10 rebounds during his team’s qualifying match against the Dominican Republic.
Diogu said:
“I’m very happy. We did what had to be done… We knew we were going to face teams that are heavyweights, and we did what we needed to do – win.”
Forward Derrick Obasohan added:
“We had the toughest schedule in the tournament but nothing was going to stop us tonight because we were on a mission.”
The Associated Press reports that Lithuania and Nigeria will be in group A with the United States, Tunisia, France and Argentina. Russia will join China, Britain, Brazil, Australia and Spain in Group B.
