Lagos — Nigeria's national men's basketball team, D'Tigers, got off to a good start yesterday as the 23rd African Nations Cup began in Algeria by beating Cote d'Ivoire 87-56.

Along with Nigeria in Group B are hosts Algeria, Mali, Tunisia and Central African Republic.

Although the Nigerians were not really troubled throughout the match, coach Sam Vincent aware that tougher games are coming up is not letting the win get to the players and insists they will remained focused until they complete their assignment.

At last edition in Egypt two years ago D'Tigers battled their way to the final only to lose to Angola, which then secured the continent's lone ticket to last year's Athens Olympic Games.

However, Angola once again underlined their favourites status by steam rolling neighbours South Africa 107-42. The defending champions hardly broke sweat in achieving the victory.

In some other games played yesterday Morocco battled hard but could not starve off defeat to Senegal going down 70-60, while Tunisia got the better of Mali 80-61.