In its first appearance at the Belgrade 2022 World School Basketball Championship, Nigeria’s representative in the boys’ event, Bishop Dimieari Grammar School of Bayelsa finished in sixth place among the 19 teams that featured at the International School Sports Federation (ISF)-organized championships hosted by the Serbia School Sports Federation.
Also, the girls’ team – St Jude’s Girls Secondary School Amarata won their classification match to finish in ninth place ahead of India.
The boys’ team led by John Wilberforce made their presence felt in Belgrade despite losing their quarterfinal to Brazil last week and were able to finish in the top six after losing their final classification match to Chinese Taipei, a team they had lost to in the group stage.
The Asian team dominated all the quarters to emerge victorious at 51-42 ahead of the Nigerian side but the only African team took solace in their top six finish in their maiden outing.
Wilberforce who has been outstanding in the competition again showed his stuff with 14 points and four assists ahead of Bassey Ekpo who dunked 14 points as well.
The female team was described as the unluckiest team in the competition who were edged out of the quarterfinal spot with one point by Turkey showed their class against India with 65-31 points to finish in ninth place ahead of the lively Indian team.
The Nigeria girls led by their captain Idubamo Beggi dominated all the quarters with the captain scoring 17points to go ahead of India.
The President of the Nigeria School Sport Federation (NSSF) Olabisi Joseph commended the teams for their conduct on and off the court which she said also impressed the leadership of the world body who believe the team gave a good account of themselves.
This is the first time Nigeria will be competing in the championship as the only African team with 19 other nations including Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, France, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Nepal, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia, Chinese Taipei, and Turkey.