AfroBasket2015, Match Preview: Nigeria vs Mozambique

The D’Tigers of Nigeria, who fell short of making much impact at the 2013 edition despite a brilliant start and who lost a nail-biting quarter-final to Senegal to eventually finished seventh, will tomorrow face a Mozambique side who has qualified for several major international competitions, including the FIBA Africa Championship and the All-Africa Games where they won the Silver Medal at the last event in 2011. The Mozambicans have played well at the current tournament losing narrowly to power houses Senegal and Angola before beating Morocco to set up a tie with Nigeria for a place in the quarter-final.

Nigeria who has the likes of  Portland Trailblazer’s Alade Aminu, impressive Chamberlain Oguchi and Olaseni Lawal in their arsenal must correct the mistakes they made against Tunisia if they must get anything out the round of 16 tie scheduled for tomorrow Wednesday, 26 August 2015, by 6:30pm.

The D’Tigers defence must be wary of the Mozambique forwards who look to draw fouls because of their wonderful free throw conversion rate and must be not be lackadaisical with their ball handling because the Mozambique are good at stealing balls.

Nigeria’s newly-appointed head coach Will Voigt, will be hoping that Nigeria grasps dominance on the African continent in all competitions and surpass the feat achieved at the 2012 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Venezuela where Nigeria beat nations with more pedigree in the game.

Standing on the way to repeating the feat is Mozambique team, led by Spaniard Head coach Inaki Garcia, who possesses vast coaching experience in African Basketball. He will be banking on the talented Pio Matos Jr. who plays for Desportivo de Maputo in Mozambique, and if Nigeria must get anything from this tie, the productive point guard who scored 23 points in the victory against Morocco, must be kept silent.

He has an average point of 20.3 more than any other Nigerian players, he is a fantastic three-point shooter and excellent team player.

•                                TEAM COMPARISON

                                      NIGERIA          vs          MOZAMBIQUE

   

  51.6%	2 Points FG	47.5%
  38.5%	3 Points FG	20.9%
  70.4%	Free-Throws	74.3%
  11.0	Offensive Rebounds	11.0
  32.3	Defensive Rebounds	18.0
  43.3	Total Rebounds	29.0
  17.0	Assists	9.3
  19.0	Turnover	11.7
  8.3	Steals	9.3
  3.0	Blocks	0.3
  24.0	Fouls	23.3
  11.0	Fast Break Points	13.7
  22.0	Biggest Lead	7.3
  25.3	Points in the Paint	23.3
  27.0	Points From The Bench	13.7
  20.3	Points From Turnover	25.3
  9.7	Second Chance Points	12.0
  11.3	Biggest Scoring Run	10.0
  38:09	Time Leading	25:06

HEAD TO HEAD

Mozambique 63 - 78  Nigeria      9/08/2011
Mozambique 43 - 82  Nigeria    03/08/1999
Nigeria 88 - 77  Mozambique

PREVIOUS GAMES IN THIS CHAMPIONSHIP

NIGERIA
Date vs Score
23 / 08 Nigeria 59 - 70 Tunisia
21 / 08 Nigeria 98 - 59 Uganda
19 / 08  Nigeria 88 - 63 CAF

MOZAMBIQUE
Date vs Score
24 / 08 Mozambique 85 - 82 Morocco
22 / 08 Mozambique 76 - 86 Senegal
20 / 08 Mozambique 72 - 84 Angola

PREDICTION

D’Tigers of Nigeria to get a slim margin victory over the Mozambicans.