D’Tigress Coach Wakama Vows Quick Recovery After Defeat To South Korea

D’Tigress Head Coach Rena Wakama is urging her team to swiftly move past their 77-60 defeat to South Korea and focus on an improved performance against the Philippines in the FIBA Women’s World Cup Qualification Tournament.

The loss on Thursday marked the first time the Nigerian senior women’s basketball team has fallen to South Korea.

Despite a close first half, trailing by only 36-32, D’Tigress struggled to maintain momentum in the latter quarters. Victoria Macaulay, who was the MVP in their opening game against Colombia, led Nigeria with 22 points and 6 rebounds.

Coach Wakama acknowledged the strength of the Korean team and highlighted areas for improvement. “Korea is a great team. We struggled today shooting the balls and we turned over the ball twenty-two times which is not typical of our game,” she stated.

Wakama emphasized a resilient mindset: “Mentality we are fine, and we are not going to overreact to the loss. There are lessons in losses so we are going to take the lessons from this game and try to get better and be ready for our next game.” She also credited South Korea’s physicality and defensive strategy.

Nigeria, along with Germany, has already qualified for the FIBA Women’s World Cup in Berlin this September and is using this tournament as preparation. South Korea is vying for one of the two World Cup tickets available from this qualification group.

D’Tigress will face the Philippines on Saturday, followed by matches against European powerhouses France and Germany.