Nigeria’s D’Tigers’ dream of placing third in this year’s Afrocan Basketball Championship has finally been dashed after they were denied a semi-final ticket.

After losing to the host nation Angola, the D’Tigers showed great resiliency to overcome Gabon easily on Wednesday and advance to the quarterfinals.

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On Thursday afternoon, they played the defending champions DR Congo, and suffered a close loss by a 2-point margin.

The D’Tigers won the final three sets 18-14, 17-14, and 18-15, but it wasn’t enough because the opening set’s large margin gave the Congolese a 64-62 victory. DR Congo dominated the first quarter and secured a 31-19 victory.