Rio Olympics men's Basketball: Brazil beats Nigeria to keep their hopes alive

The hosts defeated a much stronger Nigerian team which kept their medal hopes alive. Though it never looked like a nervy encounter like the one host played with their closest opponent Argentina but was still worth the money as Brazil won the game in the fourth quarter of the match.

The win crushed all the hopes for Nigeria to proceed into the medal round while the hope is still there for Brazil but unfortunately this will be not dependent on them as they will be hoping that other matches in their group goes in their way to keep the country’s medal hope alive.

The match as it happened

Both the teams wanted nothing short than a victory in this match and the Nigerian team truly showed how badly they wanted the win as they started the match in style where at the end of the first quarter, they were a point ahead of the hosts with a score of 16-15. After the first quarter brazil were back in their strides as they forced many fouls form the Nigerian team and earned some valuable points that took the score line to 42-31 in favour of Brazil. Nigeria came with an astounding reply in the third quarter but the Brazilians held on to their lead with a score of 59-52 in third quarter. The fourth quarter saw Brazil once again coming back to their best as they crushed the dream of Nigeria team with a score line of 86-69.

Nene – the star of the match

After some disappointing performances, the host wanted a win from this match to keep their medal hopes alive and the hour in need was for the one player who can rescue the Brazilian team and Nene did the job brilliantly. He was solely the best performer for his team. He was the one who stole the show form the Nigerian team in the final quarter and also ended the match with a score of 19.

The road is not easy for Brazil

Though Brazil booked victory but this does not necessarily means that they will proceed into the quarter finals. The Brazilian team will be hoping that their fierce sporting rival Argentina along with Lithuania wins their matches so that Spain and Croatia are eliminated and Brazil proceed through.