By Amaechi Agbo

After Friday’s shock defeat to Cape Verde in the opening group match of the ongoing FIBA 2022 World Cup Qualifiers, Nigeria’s D’Tigers bounced back in their second match and narrowly defeated Mali to restore their qualification hopes, www.bestchoicesports.com.ng can report.

Cape Verde Shocked the Nigerians on opening day with 79-71 victory.

However, the D’Tigers recovered from the Friday’s set back as they managed a 72-70 victory in their second game against Mali on Saturday.

The match was a must-win and the D’Tigers who crashed out in the preliminaries of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in Japan won the first quarter 16-15.

The Malians came back stronger in the 2nd quarter, dominated the game and won 24-14.

D’Tigers took over again in the 3rd quarter and their effort paid off as they recorded 23-16 and still did enough to win last quarter 19-15.

The outcome of the game means that D’Tigers emerged victorious 72-70 (16-15, 14-24, 23-16, 19-15) and put their hope of qualifying for the World Cup back online.

The D’Tigers will play their last Group A match against Uganda on Sunday by 8pm.

The qualifiers run from November 2021 to February 2023, with five African national teams earning a spot in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 that’s scheduled to take place from August 25th to September 10th, 2023 in Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines.