Rio Olympics Basketball: Argentina whip Nigeria’s D’Tigers

The Nigeria men’s basketball team, D’Tigers started their campaign at the Rio Olympics on a losing note as they were roundly beaten 94-66 by their Argentina counterparts in the early hours of Monday at the  Carioca Arena 1.

Argentina Facundo Campazza’s led the floor as he scored 19 points on 5-of-8 shooting from three-point territory.

Luis Scola also had 18 points for the 2004 gold medallists while Patricio Garino finished with 15 as the South Americans clearly dominated the Nigerian men from start to finish

Cheered by a large number of flag-waving Argentina fans who sang and chanted for much of the night, Argentina jumped out to an early 11-0 lead.

With that dominant start, Argentina recorded a  50-31 halftime lead.

Ike Diogu lead the floor for Nigeria; scoring 15.

Fourteen points also came from Ebi Ere while Pistons guard Michael Gbinije also had six points and three assists in 29 minutes.

But all the efforts of Nigeria’s star performers could not reduce the deficit for the D’Tigers let alone help them to an upse

Nigeria will be up against Lithuania on Tuesday in their second match of the tournament.

While Nigeria will be hoping to get back on track after the opening day defeat, Lithuania will be looking to build on their own impressive 82-76 victory over Brazil in their opening match.