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PICS: Italy Defeats Nigeria to Advance in Olympic Basketball Tournament

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SAITAMA, Japan (AP) – Italy is headed back to the Olympic quarter-finals. Nigeria is going home, its Olympic experience not what it wanted on multiple levels.

Nicolo Melli scored 15 points, Nico Mannion had 14 and Italy used a 14-0 run in the fourth quarter to rally and beat Nigeria 80-71 in the Group B finale for both teams on Saturday.

Achille Polonara added 13, Simone Fontecchio scored 12 and Stefano Tonut finished with 10 for Italy (2-1). The Italians trailed by eight in the fourth quarter before finding a way to win.

“I think that’s the beauty of it,” Mannion said. “That’s the fun part. If you’re not playing with any pressure, what is there to play for? It’s fun to play with that.”

The Italians will play again on Tuesday against a yet-to-be-determined opponent. They will finish either first or second in the group; the final standings won’t be decided until the Germany-Australia game later Saturday.

It’s the fifth consecutive Olympic appearance in which Italy has reached the quarter-finals, the most recent of those coming in 2004 when it won the silver medal at the Athens Games.

Chimezie Metu scored 22 points and Jordan Nwora added 20 for Nigeria (0-3). The Nigerians opened the summer with exhibition wins over the U.S. and Argentina in Las Vegas, but went no further in their first Olympic appearance under coach Mike Brown.

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SAITAMA, JAPAN – JULY 31: Achille Polonara #33 of Team Italy goes up for a shot against Jordan Nwora #33 of Team Nigeria during the second half of a Men’s Basketball Preliminary Round Group B game on day eight of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Saitama Super Arena on July 31, 2021 in Saitama, Japan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

After the game, the 24-year-old Metu expressed frustration with the way he said the Nigerian Olympic Committee handled organizational matters for the Tokyo Games. The basketball teams sent to Saitama had difficulty obtaining proper credentials, and 10 track and field athletes from Nigeria – nearly half the country’s team – were disqualified from competing at the Olympics because the national federation hadn’t ensured they would meet minimum doping test requirements before coming to Tokyo.

“They were disqualified and they had nothing to do with it,” said Metu, who plays for the Sacramento Kings. “What there was was a lack of attention to detail and a lack of empathy for the hard work that has been put in by us athletes. … For 60-some athletes to come here and fly halfway across the world and be disrespected and humiliated by our country … it’s a lack of attention to detail by our government.”

SAITAMA, JAPAN – JULY 31: Niccolo Mannion #1 of Team Italy goes up for a shot against Ike Nwamu #34 of Team Nigeria during the second half of a Men’s Basketball Preliminary Round Group B game on day eight of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Saitama Super Arena on July 31, 2021 in Saitama, Japan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

Some Nigerian athletes who said they were among those who were barred from the Olympics by the AIU protested on the streets of Tokyo this week. They held up signs claiming Nigerian sports and anti-doping authorities were responsible for them not meeting the testing criteria.

Brown said four members of his staff who made the trip to Japan — which wound up being a 30-hour ordeal instead of the planned 10-hour flight, another issue that Metu blamed on a lack of organization — were never allowed in the Olympic village because of credential and paperwork issues

“I don’t know why it is this way,” said Brown, who started a foundation earlier this year seeking financial help for the men’s basketball program.

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Italy’s Stefano Tonut (L) dribbles the ball past Nigeria’s Nnamdi Vincent (R) in the men’s preliminary round group B basketball match between Italy and Nigeria during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama on July 31, 2021. (Photo by Aris MESSINIS / AFP) (Photo by ARIS MESSINIS/AFP via Getty Images)

Habu Gumel, a Nigerian on the International Olympic Committee (IOC), did not immediately return an email seeking comment. A call to the Nigerian Olympic Committee also was not answered.

Jahlil Okafor scored 14 for Nigeria.

Nigeria led 63-56 after three quarters and saw the lead grow before play even resumed. Italy’s Michele Vitali got a technical for trying to slap the ball away before it was inbounded to start the fourth quarter, so before the 10-minute clock even started Nigeria’s seven-point lead increased to an eight-point edge.

Nigeria didn’t score for nearly seven minutes from there, and Mannion’s wide-open 3-pointer with 29.9 seconds left sealed the win for Italy. Mannion plays for Golden State; Brown is an assistant coach there, and Brown wished him well postgame.

“He’s an amazing coach,” Mannion said.

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Nigeria’s Chimezie Metu reacts as Italy’s players (background) celebrate their victory at the end of the men’s preliminary round group B basketball match between Italy and Nigeria during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama on July 31, 2021. (Photo by Aris MESSINIS / AFP) (Photo by ARIS MESSINIS/AFP via Getty Images)

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Report: 3,462 Nigerian Christians ‘Hacked to Death’ by Jihadists in 200 Days

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At least 3,462 Christians were murdered by Islamists in Nigeria during the first 200 days of 2021, while some 3,000 Christians — many of them girls and young women — were kidnapped in the same period, Crux reported Thursday.

Crux cites a dire report from the Nigeria-based International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, which tallied the anti-Christian violence in the country from January 1 to July 18, 2021.

The report places the “number of defenseless Christians hacked to death by Nigeria’s Islamic Jihadists and their collaborators in the security forces in the past 200 days” at 3,462, which is just 68 deaths shy of the total number of murders of Nigerian Christians in 2020, according to Open Doors’ 2021 World Watch List.

This means that on average 17 Christians are murdered every day in Nigeria because of their beliefs, leading to the 2021 Watch List conclusion that “more Christians are murdered for their faith in Nigeria than in any other country.”

In its breakdown of the Christian deaths, the report notes that “the Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen are responsible for majority of the killings with at least 1,909 Christian deaths in 200 days, followed by Boko Haram, ISWAP and Muslim Fulani Bandits who jointly killed 1,063 Christians.”

For its part, the Nigerian Army, joined by the Nigeria Police Force and other branches of the Armed Forces, “accounted for 490 Christian deaths,” the report states.

During the first 200 days of 2021, some 300 Christian churches in Nigeria were attacked, destroyed, or burned down, the report notes, and at least ten priests or pastors have been “abducted or killed by the jihadists.”

The report also asserts that “those responsible for the anti-Christian butcheries in the country have continued to evade justice and remained unchecked, untracked, uninvestigated and untried; leading to impunity and repeat-atrocities.”

“In the North, the jihadists operate freely under the cover and protection of the security forces,” it declares, “abducting, killing, looting, destroying or burning and forcefully converting their captive and unprotected Christians and their homes and sacred places of worship and learning.”

As Breitbart News has reported, the West remains largely ignorant of the extent and brutality of the anti-Christian atrocities perpetrated on a daily basis in Nigeria, in large part because of a conspicuous lack of news coverage by mainstream media.

In 2019, the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, underscored the “appalling number of innocent persons that suffer persecution because of their beliefs, including many Christians,” while noting that these violations “often occur with impunity and at times receiving little, if any, attention in the media.”

The sad fact is that the story of Muslims killing Christians does not play to the political agenda that many mainstream media would like to advance. Christians in America are often seen as an obstacle to the “progress” desired by liberals, who have no wish to publicize the sufferings of Christians abroad.

Anti-Christian bias has been rightly called “the last acceptable prejudice,” one that few condemn or even recognize.

“No one much cares about offending Christians,” wrote the coalition of African-American pastors in a 2019 essay. “In fact, mocking, belittling, and blaspheming Christianity is becoming a bit of a trend in our culture. Anti-Christian bigotry truly is the last acceptable prejudice.”

“The hypocrisy on display is astounding,” the pastors continued. “Christianity is the dominant religion of our country. It is the foundation of our government and morality. And yet, Christians are treated as fair game for mockery and insult.”

US resident is hospitalized in Texas with a case of monkeypox

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A U.S. resident who returned last week from Nigeria is in a Dallas hospital with a case of monkeypox, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Monkeypox “typically begins with flu-like illness and swelling of the lymph nodes and progresses to a widespread rash on the face and body. Most infections last 2-4 weeks. Monkeypox is in the same family of viruses as smallpox but causes a milder infection,” the CDC reported in a news release.

The CDC noted that infections involving the strain of monkeypox that this individual contracted are deadly in about 1 in 100 people, though rates can be higher in individuals with weakened immune systems.

On July 8-9, the individual flew aboard a flight from Nigeria to Atlanta and then took another flight from Atlanta to Dallas.

The CDC said that the danger of transmission through respiratory droplets aboard those flights is thought to be low due to COVID-19-related mask requirements.

“Travelers on these flights were required to wear masks as well as in the U.S. airports due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, it’s believed the risk of spread of monkeypox via respiratory droplets to others on the planes and in the airports is low,” according to the CDC.

Less than two decades ago in 2003 there was a Monkeypox outbreak among humans in the U.S. after the illness “spread from imported African rodents to pet prairie dogs,” the CDC noted.

People without symptoms cannot transmit the illness to other people, according to a Texas Department of State Health Services news release.

“Experts have yet to identify where monkeypox hides in nature, but it’s thought that African rodents and small mammals play a part in spreading the virus to people and other forest animals like monkeys. People can get monkeypox when they are bitten or scratched by an animal, prepare wild game, or have contact with an infected animal or possibly animal products,” according to the CDC.

“Monkeypox can also spread between people through respiratory droplets, or through contact with body fluids, monkeypox sores, or items that have been contaminated with fluids or sores (clothing, bedding, etc.) Human-to-human transmission is thought to occur primarily through large respiratory droplets. Respiratory droplets generally cannot travel more than a few feet, so prolonged face-to-face contact is required,” the CDC noted.