Nigeria survive a huge Tunisian rally to score a 60-56 win – London Olympics Men Basketball Recap
In their first ever appearance at the prestigious games, Nigeria got off to a dream start as they managed their way to a 60-56 win over Tunisia on Sunday.
Alade Aminu led the scoring for the Nigerians with 15 points. His conversion rate could have been slightly better though as he shot the ball just 6 of 14 from the field. Ike Diogu provided equal support in the ball game by chipping in 13 points while Al-Farouq Aminu shot the ball 3 of 9 from the field to register 10 points on the night.
The Tunisian effort was led by one Amine Rzig who finished the game with 18 points on a 7 of 9 shooting performance. Only two other players managed to cross the double figure mark for Tunisia - Macram Ben Romdhane and Marouan Kechrid both signed off with 12 points each.
Nigeria got off to a dominating start and opened up proceedings on an 8-0 scoring burst. For the remaining time in the first period, the Nigerians outscored Tunisia 10-7 to take an 18-7 lead after the opening quarter.
It took almost two and half minutes in the second quarter for the scoring to start, when the Tunisians made a three pointer to cut the lead down to 10 points. However Nigeria followed that up with another strong run, scoring the next 11 points in the ball game to take a 31-15 lead at interval.
Tunisia scored the first four points to start the second half and after conceding a two pointer on the following possession, they went on to score the 6 more unanswered points. They kept on chipping away at the deficit, but the Nigerians responded every time.
Nigeria were not letting their good work go to waste as they put together a 9-2 run to close out the period and take a 45-31 lead into the final quarter.
Tunisia however had some fight left in them. Staring at a 14 point hole, they erupted with a 9-0 run to start of the fourth quarter. The charge continued and with 5:14 remaining on the clock, they were only trailing by 49-47.
Nigeria desperately hung on in the closing moments and with 27 seconds remaining the difference remained at 2. Tunisia had the momentum on their side, however they were let down by two missed opportunities and a turnover from Romdhane which eventually cost them the game.
This allowed the Nigerian’s some much needed breathing space and all they needed was to convert two out of their last four attempts from the stripe to take this one by 4 points.
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