Can Nigeria’s D’Tigress cause the ultimate Olympic upset?

Nigeria’s  D’Tigress have been sensational so far after beating better ranked Australia and Canada in their group games in the women’s basketball event at the Paris 2024 Olympics but can the Nigerians really pull off a sporting miracle by defeating the almighty USA team seeking a 10th gold in the competition?

History does not suggest it will happen but history also did not predict Nigeria’s spectacular defeats of Australia and Canada either.

There is no gainsaying that D’Tigress have already sent positive shockwaves around the world at this event by becoming the first African team to ever make the quarter-finals.

They now have an opportunity to pull off not only the biggest upset in Olympic basketball history, but also one of the biggest in sporting history.

For that to happen, D’Tigress will have to rely on two of their most prized assets, Ezinne Kalu, their playmaker and Mujanatu Musa, the queen of defence.

While Kalu has been very inspirational with her playmaking role, Musa has led very well the team’s rugged and relentless defence that has contested shots, pressured the ball and resulted in plenty of steals and transition scores.

According to FIBA, ‘Nigeria lead the competition in steals with 13.3 per game. They also punish turnovers more ruthlessly than the USA with 23.3 points per outing compared to 20.7.

‘USA are dominant in multiple categories in the competition as leading scorers with 92 points per game, along with 49.5 percent field goal shooting and they are also quality defensively with a table-topping 6.7 blocks per game.’

Nigeria and USA met at the FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament back in February with the latter recording a commanding 100-46 success.

It was also a Group phase game at Tokyo 2020, with USA winning 81-72 in what was a super competitive encounter.

Overall, the Nigerians have lost on all five occasions they have faced the Americans.