(August 25, 2004) ?C The Olympics has come to a close for former Fordham athletes Mobolaji Akiode and Bobby Kingsbury as they concluded play on Wednesday.
Of the two, Akiode, playing for the Nigerian Women??s Basketball, had the more notable stay, as she played a big role in Nigeria??s 68-64 win over South Korea in the 11th place game of the tournament. It was the first win for Africa in the sport of basketball, as African nations were 0-18 in the Olympics in basketball prior to the win over South Korea.
In the contest, Akiode made her lone start for Nigeria, as she played 34 minutes, scoring 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting to go with six rebounds. She, along with teammate Mfon Udoka, who had 21 points and 10 rebounds in the game, came up big down the stretch in the historic win.
For the tournament, Akiode appeared in six games, averaging 3.8 points and 3.0 rebounds, while adding six steals.
Fordham??s other Olympian, Bobby Kingsbury, came through in Greece??s lone win of the baseball tournament, as it defeated Italy, 12-7, in the preliminary rounds.
In the contest, Kingsbury picked up his lone hit of the tournament, going 1-for-4 with an RBI-triple.
