Nigeria’s majestic run at the FIBA Africa U-16 Championship in Madagascar came to an end on Sunday, in the final match of the tournament, at the hands of Mali who had to hold on for dear life for a 57-46 victory as the Nigerians furiously attempted to fight back from a poor first half performance.
Sunday’s win means Mali have now won all four editions of the championship since its inaugural edition in 2009. The Nigerians, meanwhile, were making their debut appearance at the championship and will definitely hold their heads high after limiting Africa’s number one side to just 57 points. The least number of points the Malians had scored prior to Sunday’s win over Nigeria had been the 73 they poured in in their quarterfinal victory over Morocco. The Malians averaged 81.85 points per game.
As was the case in Saturday’s 54-51 semifinal win over Mozambique, Coach Adeka Daudu’s girls, who prosecuted the entire tournament with nine players after three players were suspended over age related issues, started out slowly trailing the Malians 15-6 at the end of the first quarter.
By the end of the second half, the Malians had extended their lead to 14 points as they headed into the break ahead 31-17. Scores at the end of the third quarter was 44-28 in favour of the Malians but the Nigerian girls, led by the impressive Chinelo Lucy Ibeh, who led all in scoring with 16 points, outscored the Malians 18-13 in the final quarter albeit it wasn’t enough to deny the Frenchspeaking West Africans a fourth consecutive title. Nigeria and Mali will now represent Africa at next year’s FIBA U-17 Championship.
