The D’Tigers have crashed out of the men’s Olympics basketball in Tokyo after suffering their third defeat to Italy by 80-71.
Nicolo Melli scored 15 points, Nico Mannion had 14 and Italy used a 14-0 run in the fourth quarter to beat Nigeria 80-71 in the Group B finale for both teams on Saturday.
Chimezie Metu scored 22 points and Jordan Nwora added 20 for Nigeria (0-3) which was of course, short to ensure victory.
Nigeria led 63-56 after three quarters and saw the lead grow before play even resumed.
Italy´s Michele Vitali got a technical for trying to slap the ball away before it was inbounded to start the fourth quarter, so before the 10-minute clock even started Nigeria´s seven-point lead increased to an eight-point edge.
Nigeria didn´t score for nearly seven minutes from there, and Mannion´s wide-open 3-pointer with 29.9 seconds left sealed the win for Italy.
However, previous defeats against Australia in their first Group B preliminary by 108-69 and another against Germany by 92-99 has condemned the progress of team from this year’s edition.
