RADES (AfroBasket 2015) - Nigeria beat Angola 74-65 in the Final of AfroBasket 2015 in Rades, Tunisia on Sunday to claim 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-place 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.
Chamberlain 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. 

Oguchi was rewarded for his impressive tournament and huge individual performance in the Final by receiving the Most Valuable Player award, presented by Tissot.

Nigeria’s shooting guard, Chamberlain ‘champ’ Oguchi, claimed the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award of the 2015 Afrobasket after the country’s victory over Angola on Sunday.
The 29-year-old new Anwil Wlocklawek recruit in the Polish Basketball League finished the tournament with an accumulated tally of 116 points and 23 rebounds to inspire D’Tigers to their first-ever success at the biennial basketball continental championships.
He added 3 out of 10 three-point efforts and 7 – all defensive – rebounds as Nigeria secured their first ever win over Angola in their tenth meeting, emerging with a game-high 19 points in Sunday’s final.
As well as winning the MVP, Oguchi made the 2015 All-Star Final and claimed the award for the Best Points having led D’Tigers’ scorers chart, averaging 16.6 points per game.

He is joined in the 2015 Afrobasket All-Star Five by his Nigeria team-mate Al-Farouq Aminu, Angola’s star man, Carlos Morais, Makram Ben Romdhane of Tunisia and Senegal’s Gorgui Dieng.
The victory in Rades, Tunisia, sealed a direct passage to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio for Nigeria.

Runners-up Angola, third-placed team, Tunisia and Senegal will advance to the Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

In the Classification Games, Egypt edged out Algeria 69-63 to finish fifth, Mali came in seventh after defeating Gabon 94-82, Cameroon cruised past Cape Verde 88-66 for ninth place, Mozambique topped Cote d'Ivoire 70-63 for 11th place, Morocco saw off Central African Republic (CAF) 86-74 for 13th place and Uganda defeated Zimbabwe 72-64 for 15th place.

Final standings of AfroBasket 2015:
1. Nigeria
2. Angola
3. Tunisia
4. Senegal
5. Egypt
6. Algeria
7. Mali
8. Gabon
9. Cameroon
10. Cape Verde
11. Mozambique
12. Cote d'Ivoire
13. Morocco
14. Central African Republic (CAF)
15. Uganda
16. Zimbabwe

By Dusan Radonjic