Basketball: How inconsistency nearly cost us bronze – Sani

D’Tigers’ coach, Ahmed Sani has said his team nearly lost the bronze medal match against Mali, which it controlled for the first two quarters in the absorbing game.
The Nigerian team was 13 points ahead after the first half (first two quarters), but trailed by five points with a few minutes remaining as they allowed the Malians back into the game.
However, the D’Tigers raised their game and added seven points with 30 seconds remaining to win the game 57-55 and pick the bronze medal.

Sani said his boys played hard in the first half, but once they built a good lead, the performance dropped and became inconsistent. “When the players saw that we were leading, they relaxed and only woke up from their slumber when they realised that the game was slipping away.”


The coach also stated that the players defended well in the first stanza, but allowed the Malians to run at them in the second half, while they also failed to score in five minutes.
“I have always told them that a good defence can win a game. But if you are porous at the back and you fail to score, then it would always be difficult to win a basketball game. We even failed to score for five minutes, which also put us under a lot of pressure.

“The Malians have never played in the third place game at the African Games and having come this far, they were ready to fight for the bronze, but I am happy we won despite the fact  that we could not defend the gold medal we won in Maputo in 2011,” Sani added.
He also thanked the Director General of the National Sport Commission (NSC), Alhassan Yakmut for inspiring the players in the semi final game against Egypt and the third place match.