By Tony Ubani reporting from London
Ike Diogu:
We are glad that we won. We came here to prove that we are the best in Africa and I’m happy we did that. But credit must go to Tunisia. They are a very good team. In the first half we got on to a 16 point lead and that was good. But we got sluggish and they closed in on us.

They were excellent in defence and we were doing a little bit one on one. We are happy that we have made a lot of people happy at home. This is history. It is our first time in the Olympics and we won our first match. It feels good. This is history and I’m happy to be part of it.

Dagunduro Ade

It was great that we won. We now have to stay focused. At a time we thought we were coasting to victory. That affected our mentality and Tunisia closed up. It happens in basketball and that’s why I said we really need to be focused in our subsequent matches.

Coach Adel Tlati of Tunisia

It was the first match and we were under pressure. At half time I told the boys that we would lose going by the way we played. Pressure was a big problem. Nigeria is a strong team and I have no regrets. When we were preparing we knew that Nigeria would be strong. We have seen it and I have no regrets.

Ayo Bakare, Nigeria’s coach

First, I must thank God for the grace of being here and winning our first match. We expected a strong Tunisia side and that happened. It’s not easy to be 16 points down and still come up the way they did. It was a good game, a good outing for two African teams. We have showcased Africa’s basketball and proved that we both deserve to be here

We were under pressure against Nigeria — Tunisian coach

The coach of the Tunisia  team Abdel Tlatli has said that lack of real international exposure put a lot of pressure on his team in the match a against Nigeria.

The Tunisians were beaten 60-56 by Nigeria in the men’s opening match at the London Olympics. He maintained that Nigerian players have always been at advantage over his country in view of their exposure and physical strength.

“We knew they were great going into the encounter. We didn’t have that kind of physical strength exhibited by Nigerians. We expected nothing less from them have watched them over time,” Tlatli said.

The coach said that even though they had arrived in London as the African champions, the pressure was more on them because it was their first appearance in a competition like.

He said, “We are champions but the Olympics is collection of great teams of the world and we have never been here in the past.

The players were under heavy pressure to say the least. All I tried to do was to manage the huge challenge in terms of exposure by making them believe in themselves. I told them we could either win or lose but the final result depended on how we approached the game.

“We eventually lost but there’s surely nothing to regret about. It is a good learning point for the future for Tunisia basketball.”

The coach said that they would put in their best in their remaining four matches of the competition.

“In games some things eventually turn out differently from what was originally envisaged and so we cannot begin to say we may no longer do this or this what we intend to do. We will take the next games one after the other. We all we need is to play well,” he said.