Serbia and Montenegro's Marko Marinovic, right, loses his balance as Nigeria's Ime Udoka grabs the ball during their game at the world basketball championship

 SENDAI, Japan (AFP) - A quick Nigerian team led by  New York Knicks guard Ime Udoka proved too much for reigning world champions Serbia and Montenegro with the Africans ekeing out a 82-75 win here.

Nigeria used a swarming defensive to nullify Serbia's big front-line leading most of the way in the closely contested Group A match at the World Basketball Championships.

Although Udoka fouled out with just under four-minutes in the game Saturday he contributed 18 points for the winners, with eight of them coming in the third quarter.

A three-pointer by University of Oregon guard Chamberlain Oguchi gave Nigeria its biggest lead of the final frame at 71-63, but two three pointers by Serbian guard Uros Tripkovic pulled the reigning champs to within 77-73 with 56 seconds remaining.

Nigerian players wave at their fans after their win over Serbia and Montenegro at the world basketball championships first round match in Sendai

But Nigerians Ebi Ere and Gabe Muonkeke secured the win from the free throw stripe.

Serbia was led by Real Madrid point guard Igor Rakocevic with 20 points.

Nigeria jumped out to a 19-11 first quarter lead as the Africans corralled Serbia's long-range misses and turned them into fast break points with Ere leading the charge, getting two easy baskets in the early going.

But after a time out by Serbian coach Dragan Sakota, the Europeans settled down to close the gap to 25-19 at the end of the first period behind the play of guards Rakocevic and Miroslav Raicevic.

Both of them scored seven each in the first half which with Nigeria 42-38 ahead.

Robot  Villager

# 1 ...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 22.02.2008 19:03