Nigeria's senior men's basketball team known as D'Tigers suffered a 79-70 loss to Cape Verde in a FIBA World Cup qualifier.
The group stage qualifier fixture took place on Friday, July 1st at the state-of-the-art Kigali Arena in Rwanda.
D'Tigers are the first national team to return to action after President Muhammadu Buhari lifted the ban on basketball in Nigeria.
D'Tigers had to take to the court without several of their top stars in action.
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Nigeria vs Cape Verde
D'Tigers started off hot in the qualification fixture as they took the first quarter 15-14.
Cape Verde would bounce back to take the second quarter 25-11 and establish a 13 point lead going to the halftime break.
D'Tigers came back from the break and dominated to the third quarter 21-17 cutting the deficit to nine.
The fourth quarter ended 23-23 as Cape Verde withstood a late come back by the D'Tigers to record a much needed win.
D'Tigers have shown the capacity to bounce back in the qualification series and will hope to do so when they take on Mali in their next fixture against Mali scheduled to take place on Saturday, July 2, 2022.