However, team skipper and tournament’s Most Valuable Player Ike Diogu, would not be a part of the delegation, as he headed to the United States of America to attend to personal concerns.
The delegation, led by the president of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) Musa Kida, arrived the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos at about 3:30am.
The 2015 champions who were just in camp for about two weeks before their title defence, surpassed their pre-tournament expectation by getting to the final of the tournament, defeating continental powerhouses like Senegal and Cameroon in the quarter-final and semi-final, respectively.
Power forward Diogu emerged the tournament’s leading scorer with an average of 22 points per game, while D’Tiger’s guard Ikenna Iroegbu who made his Afrobasket debut for Nigeria, was also named one of the Tournament’s Best 5.
Diogu,34, who recorded a tournament-high, also averaged 8.7 rebounds per game at the 16-team continental basketball fiesta.
Despite the loss against the host, it would be a tournament to remember for Diogu who was the tournament’s highest scorer with a total of 132 points, as he powered the side to the finals after emerging as the team’s highest points’ scorer in four of its six games.
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