Nigeria senior national basketball team, D’Tigers, lost to Cape Verde 79-76 in the classification round of the ongoing Afrobasket on Thursday.
It means the Cape-Verdeans now plays for the fifth place at the tournament.
Ike Diogu notched up 22 points and 10 rebounds for Nigeria. AL-Farouq Aminu made 13 points for the losing team.
Nigeria stepped up with 23 points in the opening quarter, maintaining a two-point lead. They managed the lead throughout the second quarter and were 37-40 up at half-time.
But Cape Verde closed the gap in the third period and were one point within the reach of D’Tigers at the end of the third stanza with scores settled at 54-55.
They pulled ahead of Nigeria in the fourth quarter. Nigeria tried to stage a late comeback but to no avail.
Mario Correia led the winners with 16 points, Brian Rudolph added 15 points and 8 assists, while Flavio Gomes made 12 points.
