D’Tigress must Learn from 77–60 loss to South Korea women’s national basketball team, says Wakama

By Tosin Omojola

Head coach of Nigeria’s women’s basketball team, D’Tigress, Rena Wakama, has urged her players to quickly move past their defeat to South Korea women’s national basketball team and focus on improving in their next game against the Philippines women’s national basketball team at the qualifying tournament for the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup in Lyon, France.

D’Tigress suffered a 77–60 loss to the Koreans in their second game on Thursday, marking the first time Nigeria’s senior women’s basketball team has been defeated by South Korea.

Wakama said the team would learn valuable lessons from the defeat while also praising the Koreans for their strong overall performance.

“Korea is a great team. We struggled today shooting the ball and we turned the ball over 22 times, which is not typical of our game,” she said.

She added that the team remains mentally strong despite the setback.

“Mentally we are fine and we are not going to overreact to the loss. There are lessons in defeats, so we will take those lessons from this game, improve, and be ready for our next match.”

The coach also acknowledged the physical approach of the Korean side, adding “The Koreans were very physical, denying our passing lanes and doubling up on our players. They did a great job and they deserve credit”.

South Korea is aiming to secure one of the two available World Cup tickets from the round-robin qualifying tournament to join Nigeria and Germany women’s national basketball team, who have already qualified for the tournament.

Both Nigeria and Germany are participating in the qualification competition mainly as preparation for the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup scheduled for September in Berlin.

D’Tigress will next face the Philippines on Saturday before taking on European sides France women’s national basketball team and Germany in their remaining matches.