D’Tigress will do better against Philippines, says Coach Rena

By Pius Ayinor

D’Tigress on Thursday, lost to South Korea in their second game of the FIBA Women’s World Cup Qualifiers ongoing in Lyon-Villeurbanne, France. It is one defeat Coach Rena Wakama has said would push them to a better outing in their next match against the Philippines on Saturday.

The Korean loss at 77-60 happened after D’Tigress’ first match victory against Colombia which ended at 70-37.

Coach Rena who spoke at the post-match media conference said there was enough lessons learnt from the Thursday match. She acknowledged that it was one those not so good days on the court for her girls, and promised that the team shall bounce back and continue its good performances in subsequent games.

She said, “Today was a great learning experience for us. Huge credit to Korea, they are a great team. We will learn from this and be better on Saturday, against the Philippines.”

The loss to South Korea was the first in their three meetings since the first at the 2004 Athens Olympics. D’Tigress again prevailed at the buzzer when they met at the qualifying tournament for the Rio 2016 Olympics.

The African champions who have qualified already for the 2026 Women’s World Cup in Berlin this September will take the Philippines on Saturday in a game D’Tigress need to win to keep their morale steadily high for September big event.