D’Tigers power forward, Chimezie Metu, scored an impressive 22 points but his effort was not good enough to stop Nigeria from recording another defeat in the men’s basketball event of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

Nigeria lost 71-80 to Italy in the final group B match at the Saitama Super Arena.

The result means Italy will be back to the Olympic quarter-finals, making it the fifth consecutive Olympics appearance for the Italians in the last 8.

Italy started the game well, winning the first quarter 29-17 points. Coach Mike Brown re-strategised and made a rejuvenated return to winning the second and third quarters.

After the third quarter, Nigeria had a 63-56 lead before everything went wrong for the D’Tigers in the fourth quarter.

For almost seven minutes, the Nigerian side failed to score and left open spaces for the Italians and failed to convert the little chances they struggled to create.

On the other hand, Nicolo Melli scored 15 points, Nico Mannion had 14, Achille Polonara added 13, while Simone Fontecchio scored 12 for Italy.

The European team capitalised on a 14-0 lead they built in the fourth quarter to hold on till the end of the game. They will confirm their position (first or second) on the group standings after the game between Germany and Australia.

The Italians won silver at the 2004 Athens Olympics and will be hoping to improve on that performance in Tokyo.

Another impressive performer for Team Nigeria was Jordan Nwora who scored 20 for the D’Tigers while Jahill Okafor recorded 14 for Coach Brown’s team whose Olympics campaign came to an end without a win.

Picture: Another disppointing move for D’Tigers