Nigeria are Africa’s Basketball champions

Nigeria beat Angola 74-65 in the Final ofAfroBasket 2015 in Rades, Tunisia on Sunday to claim their first-ever continental championship.

In being crowned African champions, the Nigerians also qualified for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Meanwhile, second-place Angola joined third- and fourth-place Tunisia and Senegal in booking their places for the 2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments (OQTs).

Angola went into the Final looking to win a 12th African title and led early on, before Nigeria’s rotation made the difference as they turned the score around in the second quarter and once they took the lead, they held on to it, going up by as many as 19 points.

ICYMI: Here's a quick summary of how D'Tigers became champs tonight! #MissionComplete #Rio2016 #CHAMPS pic.twitter.com/OnQ75c6Bdj

— Nigeria Basketball (@NigeriaBasket) August 30, 2015

Chamberlain Oguchi hit a trifecta of three-pointers on his way to a game-high 19 points for Nigeria, with Olaseni Lawal finished with a dozen. Carlos Morais led the Angolans with 15 points while Yanick Moreira added 13.

Oguchi was rewarded for his impressive tournament and huge individual performance in the Final by receiving the Most Valuable Player award, presented by Tissot.

The 29-year old headlined the All-Star Five which also included his Nigeria team-mate Al-Farouq Aminu, Morais of Angola, Tunisia’s Makram Ben Romdhane and Gorgui Dieng of Senegal.

“It’s the best moment of my life, to be able to come here after missing the last AfroBasket, to be able to come here and do this with my brothers, it feels amazing,” Oguchi said afterwards.

“I’m happy to be able to share this moment with them and for me personally, it’s just really great.”

Tunisia bounced back from their Semi-Final defeat to Angola on Saturday tobeat Senegal 82-73 in Sunday’s Third-Place Game. Michael Roll made 4 of his 8 three-point attempts to lead all scorers with 25 points as the tournament hosts – despite playing without their star Salah Mejri – led for most of the contest and gave their fans something to cheer about.

In the Classification Games, Egypt edged out Algeria 69-63 to finish fifth, Mali came in seventh after defeating Gabon 94-82, Cameroon cruised past Cape Verde 88-66 for ninth place, Mozambique topped Cote d’Ivoire 70-63 for 11th place, Morocco saw off Central African Republic (CAF) 86-74 for 13th place and Uganda defeated Zimbabwe 72-64 for 15th place.

Final standings of AfroBasket 2015:
1. Nigeria
2. Angola
3. Tunisia
4. Senegal
5. Egypt
6. Algeria
7. Mali
8. Gabon
9. Cameroon
10. Cape Verde
11. Mozambique
12. Cote d’Ivoire
13. Morocco
14. Central African Republic (CAF)
15. Uganda
16. Zimbabwe