PARIS (France) - D'Tigress have already sent positive shockwaves around the world at the Women’s Olympic Basketball Tournament Paris 2024 by becoming the first African team to ever make the Quarter-Finals, but now they face the best in the business.
Treading new ground for African basketball, Nigeria have an opportunity to pull off not only the biggest upset in Olympic basketball history, but also one of the biggest in sporting history.
Having already beaten both Australia and Canada, there is no doubt that Nigeria have made everyone sit up and take note. But USA are built differently to most teams. The dominant force of this competition for so many years, they will be ready to continue that tradition.
Will we get the headline of all basketball headlines, or will USA move to within two wins of yet another gold?
Key matchup
Ezinne Kalu vs Chelsea Gray
She hadn't played since Tokyo 2020, but once playmaker Ezinne Kalu walked back into Nigeria's locker room after three years away, everything changed. The proof of that is in this very fixture even taking place. She has inspired her country with exceptional performances.
Perhaps first in line to try and halt her progress and influence will be Chelsea Gray, who might get the starting thumbs up for USA. She is passing the rock 6 times per game herself and having a productive tournament, but stopping Kalu make Nigeria tick is the priority.
X-factors
Just how good is this Nigeria defense?
The unprecedented success of head coach Rene Wakama and her team has been built around their rugged and relentless team defense that has contested shots, pressured the ball and resulted in plenty of steals and transition scores.
But this is going to be put to the most rigorous test imaginable when they face a USA team capable of taking games away from opponents in the blink of an eye because of their firepower.
Stats don't lie
Nigeria lead the competition in steals with 13.3 per game. They also punish turnovers more ruthlessly than the USA with 23.3 points per outing compared to 20.7.
USA are dominant in multiple categories in the competition as leading scorers with 92 points per game, along with 49.5 percent field goal shooting and they are also quality defensively with a table-topping 6.7 blocks per game.
Past matchups
Nigeria and USA met at the FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament back in February with the latter recording a commanding 100-46 success.
It was also a Group phase game at Tokyo 2020, with USA winning 81-72 in what was a super competitive encounter.
FIBA