Olympic Women’s Basketball: US gets newcomer Nigeria in quarterfinals

VILLENEUVE-D’ASCQ, France (AP) — Nigeria is headed to the quarterfinals, the first African team to ever make it that far in women’s Olympic basketball.

The reward is a matchup with seven-time defending champion U.S. in Paris at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday. The Olympic women’s basketball draw was announced Sunday.

The other matchups were Spain against Belgium, France against Germany and Serbia facing Australia. The winners of Spain-Belgium and France-Germany will meet in the semifinals on Friday. The Nigeria-U.S. winner plays the Serbia-Australia victor.

Nigeria became the first African country to make the men’s or women’s elimination round at the Olympics. The team was happy to be headed to Paris.

“The Eiffel Tower, croissants, more food,” said Ezinne Kalu, who led Nigeria with 21 points in the win over Canada on Sunday. “I mean, the little village has been great, but it’s only basketball there. So to go to Paris and see other athletes competing in their sports and just be around the great energy of so many different countries, and to be the only African club there for basketball competing, it just really means a lot to us. And it’s something that we’re not going to take for granted.”

The U.S., which includes Seattle Storm star Jewell Loyd on its roster, has been a mainstay in the Olympic quarterfinals and is riding a record 58-game Olympic winning streak. Nigeria had the seventh best record of the eight qualifiers, but the U.S. couldn’t play Belgium because the two teams were in the same pool.

The Nigerians finished third in their pool after Australia, helped by Storm players Ezi Magbegor and Sami Whitcomb, beat France 79-72, giving the Opals enough points to finish second in their group and avoid playing the U.S. That was France’s first loss of the tournament and cost the home team.

“I’m just happy to survive. So, we got an opportunity to keep playing,” Australia coach Sandy Brondello said.

The Opals coach then added that it didn’t matter who the Australians played in the quarters “as long as not the USA.”

Canada, Japan, China and Puerto Rico didn’t advance to Paris.

Before the WNBA break: Loyd, Ogwumike power Storm past Sparks