Nigeria and Senegal’s women’s basketball teams are celebrating today after creating history on Sunday at the Basketball World Cup on the Spanish island of Tenerife.
The two sides became the first African teams to ever win group games at the World Cup, formerly the World Championships. First Senegal beat Latvia 70-69 and then a few hours later Nigeria beat Turkey 74-68.
Both sides had lost their opening games on Saturday, with Senegal beaten 87-67 by reigning champions USA while Nigeria lost 86-68 to Australia.
African national teams have been playing at the global finals since 1974. Nigeria lost all five of their matches at their only other appearance in the finals in 2006. Senegal have been to the global showpiece on seven occasions and have only ever won in matches to decide the minor placings – they were the first team to win a match in 1990, when they beat Malaysia and then Zaire to decide the 13th to 16th places at the 16-team tournament. BBC
Pix: Nigeria Basketball female Team, D’Tigress celebrating
