By Patrick Omorodion
The Pavilhao Multiusos de Luanda Indoor Hall in Angola’s capital city, Luanda will be literally on fire today when Nigeria’s D’Tigers take on wounded defending champions of Tunisia in their second game in the ongoing 2015 Afrobasket Championship in Angola.
In Wednesday’s first Group games, D’Tigers beat Madagascar 77-59 while in the late fixture later same day, Cameroun shocked Tunisia by 21 points, winning 86-65 to top the group with game points difference of 21 to Nigeria’s 18 as both sides are tied on two points each.
Tunisia who are currently at the bottom will be meeting their Nigerian counterparts for the seventh time with D’Tigers sharing victories with them at three apiece in the six earlier encounters in 1999, 2005, 2007, 2012, 2015 and 2017.
In more recent encounters, D’Tigers lost to Tunisia in Tunis when they hosted the 2015 Afrobasket at the group stage but went on to win the trophy, their first and only time.
In 2017, they couldn’t defend the title as they again lost to Tunisia 65-77 in the final.
As Head Coach Abdulrahman Mohammed lines out his wards today, he needs to work out a plan to stop Tunisia’s top scorer, Jawhar Jawadi who shot 16 points against Cameroon as well as Mohamed Ochi and Omar Abada who scored 12 and 11 points respectively.
Coach Mohammed will need the experience of his guards, Mike Nuga, Josh Okogie, Caleb Agada and Ike Nwamu to checkmate Jawada, Ochi and Abada while hoping that Agada. Nwamu and small forward and co-captain, Stan Okoye who scored double digits against Mozambique will rise up to the occasion once again.
