Nigeria Thursday dethrone Cote d’Ivoire as the leader of the FIBA Africa Zone-III elimination in Day-3 of the series with a 72-52 points win.
Nigeria who lost narrowly to Togo on Wednesday came out against Cote d’Ivoire who had enjoyed an unbeaten run in the qualifying series more determined and this paid off as the Nigerian side picked the first two quarters with 19-13 and 16-13 points for a half-time score-line of 36-26 points.
Cote d’Ivoire came out smoking in the third quarter but the effort could only yield a 20-19 points win going into the final quarter with a 9 points deficit with the Nigerian pilling up pressure on the Cote d’Ivoire side winning the last quarter by 17-06 points for a final score of 72-52 points which shot them to the top of the four-nation elimination series.
Nigeria Abubakar Usman led the floor with 19 points, Azuoma Dike added 14 points, Mattew Omonye contributed 10 points and 5 rebounds while Onyeka Ekpete grabbed 7 rebounds to secure victory for Nigeria who now share the same record with Cote d’Ivoire of 2-1.