Winning Afrobasket 2015 is best moment of my life, says Oguchi

D’Tigers’ Chamberlain Oguchi, who won the best Most Valuable Player of the competition at the just concluded Afrobasket Championship in Rades, Tunisia, has described Nigeria’s 74-65 defeat of perennial champions, Angola, in the final game of the competition, as the best moment of his life.

Oguchi was rewarded for his impressive tournament and huge individual performance in the final by receiving the MVP award presented by Tissot.

The 29-year-old headlined the All-Star Five, which also included his Nigeria teammate, Al-Farouq Aminu, Morais of Angola, Tunisia’s Makram Ben Romdhane and Gorgui Dieng of Senegal.

An excited Oguchi, who drew applause with every gesture he made after the final game, said, “It’s the best moment of my life, to be able to come here after missing the last AfroBasket, to be able to come here and do this with my brothers, it feels amazing,” Oguchi said afterwards.

“I am happy to be able to share this moment with them and for me personally, it’s just really great.”

Nigeria’s win on Sunday was their first-ever continental championship.

In being crowned African champions, the Nigerians also qualified for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Meanwhile, second-place Angola joined third and fourth-placed Tunisia and Senegal in booking their places for the 2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments (OQTs).

Angola went into the final looking to win a 12th African title and led early on, before Nigeria’s rotation made the difference as they turned the score around in the second quarter and once they took the lead, they held on to it, going up by as many as 19 points.

Oguchi hit a trifecta of three-pointers on his way to a game-high 19 points for Nigeria, with Olaseni Lawal finished with a dozen. Carlos Morais led the Angolans with 15 points, while Yanick Moreira added 13.