Vasas Akademia of Hungary guard, Ezinne Kalu, has warned other African teams dreaming of winning next year‘s Africa women Basketball championship to prepare for war because D’tigress is not ready to relinquish the title they won in Mali in 2017.
D’tigress won the tournament for the first time since 2005 after they defeated Senegal 65-48 in the final of the 2017 edition and all eyes will be on them, as they will be going to 2019 edition as favorite following their heroic performance at the just concluded 2018 FIBAWomen’s world cup .
However, Ezinne who was one of Nigeria ’ s best performers at the 2017 FIBA Afrobasket said the team are ready to defend their title.
“Absolutely. Right now we are the champions and nobody can take that from us . The only way is if we give it to them and that will never happen . We are D ’ Tigress . We worked and are working hard to be the best .“
It would be recalled that D’tigress took the World by storm when they beat Turkey, Grece, and Argentina to qualify for the quarter final of the FIBA Women’s world cup in Tenerife Spain.
The 26-year old charged her teammates to keep working at the various clubs in order to sustain the success achieved at the World Cup.
“This can be sustained by us consistently putting in the work on – and – off the court. Even as each individual player play on their club teams , it ’ s important that we all stay in the best shape and get better in any way that we can .
Every summer is a new task for us but if we do the early work and we are prepared , then everything will fall into place for us .” She added.
The American born basketball star also praise the influence of Coach Otis Hughley had on the team after joining the team shortlybefore the World Cup.
“Otis is a good guy and coach . I love his passion for the game and the knowledge he brings to the table .
He definitely pushes his players to play at a high level.“ She concluded.