Nigeria national male basketball team, D’Tigers, are on the brink of elimination after suffering their second consecutive defeat of the Rio Olympics to Lithuania on Wednesday morning.
Will Voigt’s team crashed to the European powerhouse 89 – 80 few days after suffering similar fate against Argentina.
Despite the defeat, it was a more spirited and commanding performance from the Nigerians who were without Talismanic duo Shane Lawal and Michael Gbinije.
Lawal was ruled out of the clash due to injury while illness sidelined Gbinije out of the contest.
As expected, team captain, Ike Diogu was impressive, scoring 19 points and point guard Michael Umeh, 17, for D’Tigers.
However, Jonas Maciulis rose to the occasion and scored 13 of his 21 points in the third period as Lithuania outscored the AfroBasket 2015 winners 29-13.
The European team went from trailing by 5 at half-time to leading 65-54 heading into the final frame.
Lithuania battled hard and took the lead for good midway through the third quarter when Maciulis hit one of his three 3-pointers.
The Europeans who are unbeaten in two, next face Argentina, while Nigeria meet fellow winless side Spain, the Group B preliminary round favourites before stumbling against Croatia and Brazil.
