Nigeria’s D’Tigress achieved a historic Olympic milestone on Sunday after beating Canada 79-70 points to become the first African nation, male or female, to reach the quarterfinals of Olympic basketball.

The Nigerian ladies kicked off their campaign at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games with a stunning 75-62 win over third-ranked Australia in a thrilling match that stunned basketball fans but lost 70-54 to hosts France in the second group game.

Knowing they needed a win against Canada in their last Group B game on Sunday to outrightly secure a place in the last eight without waiting for the results of games to go in their favour, the Nigerian ladies showed resilience and stormed to a historic victory. 

With Kalu Ezinne scoring 21 points, most of any player on the court today, Nigeria held Canada to 18:18 points in the first quarter but lost the second quarter 23:19 as the Canadians went into halftime with a 41:37 points advantage.

Nigeria completely outclassed Canada in the third quarter, scoring 23 points while pegging their opponents to just five points. The Canadian tried to pull back in the last quarter, winning 24:19 points but it was already too late to change the outcome.

Before the tournament, African women’s basketball teams combined for only one win over 37 games in the Olympics, but Nigeria have already had two wins in three games in the Paris Games so far.