Amy Okonkwo: How we bounced back to make basketball history at the Olympics
D’Tigress forward, Amy Okonkwo has revealed how the team bounced back from a shambolic performance against France and in the first half of their game against Canada to make history as the first African team to play in the quarterfinal of the event at the Olympics.
“I am so proud of us. The last game wasn;t good for us and even in the first half today, we were not doing what we wanted to come out and do. We had a talk with ourselves and realised it was win or go home and we decided we wanted to stay,’ said Okonkwo.
According to FIBA, ‘Nigeria are now assured to take part in the quarter-finals of this 2024 Olympic tournament and will become the first team from Africa to reach that stage (Men or Women); they have now won two of their three games in 2024 (v Australia and Canada), before this year, the teams from Africa tallied only one win in 37 games played in the Women’s tournament (already Nigeria, against South Korea in 2004).’
According to the stats, Nigeria’s Ezinne Kalu scored 21 points in the game, only Mfon Udoka (3 games in 2004) previously managed to score 20+ points with Nigeria in a game at the Olympics while Promise Amukamara made five steals against Canada, the second-most for a player with a team from Africa in a game at the Olympics (Nigeria’s Maktabene Amachree, 6 v Greece in 2004).
