Al-Farouq Aminu heated up in the second quarter of Nigeria’s 108-66 victory over South Korea on Wednesday at the 2019 FIBA World Cup, knocking down all three of his shot attempts in the period.
The 6-foot-9 forward, who finished with nine points on 4-of-7 shooting in just 16 minutes of action, started clicking just as his teammates did, who collectively made 11 of their 17 shot attempts in the second quarter when Nigeria outscored South Korea by 16.
Micheal Eric led the Nigerians with 17 points on the night, while Ike Diogu scored 16 and Chimezie Metu had 15.
Nigeria, which started the game by making just one of its first seven 3-point attempts, found the mark from beyond the arc as the game evolved, drilling 14 of its final 23 tries. Metu, Stan Okoye and Nnamdi Vincent each buried three triples, while Josh Okogie and Diogu each hit two and Aminu, a nearly 34 percent career 3-point shooter in the NBA, sank one of his two 3-point attempts.
Although they didn’t advance to the second round, the Nigerians will have a chance to build some extra momentum for future international tournaments during the classification round, where they will be part of Group M and play Ivory Coast and the loser of the game between China and Venezuela, which takes place later today.