• Pays special tribute to league ambassadors
Zenith Bank Plc, sponsors of the annual National Women League, on Monday congratulated Nigeria’s female team, D’Tigress, winning the 2017 FIBA Women AfroBasket which ended in Bamako, Mali at the weekend.
D’Tigress achieved the remarkable feat in style by beating the defending Champions, Senegal, 65-48 in the final match to earn Nigeria her third title in the competition which was the 23rd edition. Incidentally, Senegal has won the competition 11 times. Nigeria also won the event in 2003 and 2005.
The Group Managing Director of Zenith Bank, Peter Amangbo, on Monday showered praises on the players for going all the way to make Nigerians proud.
He said: “It was a sweet victory for the Nigeria. As sponsors of the national women league, Zenith Bank is a major stakeholder in the sport and we are happy with the feat achieved by D’Tigress
“We salute the hard work and determination of the players and officials of the team especially because they won all their matches in the competition.”
The Zenith Bank boss, however, paid special tribute to the three home-based players who made the trip to Mali for the competition. They are Nikechi Akashili, Chioma Udeaja and Upe Atosu.
“Let me also congratulate the three worthy ambassadors of the Zenith Women Basketball League- Akashili, Udeaja and Atosu- who joined national camp just after the final of the Final 8 in Lagos.
“We are particularly proud that of the home-based players invited out of which three eventually made the team. This is good for our investment in basketball over the years and we are encouraged to do more.”
D’Tigress started the competition by beating Mozambique 80-69 in their first game, whipped Democratic Republic of Congo 84-47 in the second and defeated Egypt 106-72 to emerge the first team to book a place in the quarterfinal of the competition.
Nigeria also defeated Senegal 58-54 in the last group match, blew out Cote d’Ivoire 98-43 in the quarterfinals and pipped Mali 48-47 in the semis before beating Senegal 65-48 in the final.