Hungary women fight through a shaky performance to beat Nigeria at the World Cup

Hungary finally got its first win at the World Cup, but it made hard work of a game it should have controlled. The team beat Nigeria 71-67 in the second round of Group B after a performance marked by poor shooting, repeated mistakes and a late scare.

Hungary led throughout, but Nigeria moved back within six points early in the third quarter as the Hungarian offense stalled. Hungary had already committed 17 turnovers, and the game’s standard often dropped sharply. Dorka Juhász’s outstanding performance proved crucial, offsetting the uncertainty elsewhere in the team.

Hungary held an eight-to-10-point advantage and led 52-42 at the end of the third quarter. Juhász and the also-effective Virág Takács-Kiss kept the team in control, while Nigeria collapsed during the final five minutes and Hungary began finding better attacks.

The lead still nearly disappeared. Nigeria cut it to six points with two minutes left, then to two. Hungary’s total of 26 turnovers was hardly a statistic to celebrate, but it survived because Nigeria made even more mistakes and could not complete the comeback.

That made the victory the main fact of the afternoon. Hungary had lost to France after committing 22 turnovers, but against Nigeria it managed to win despite giving the ball away four more times. The performance remained unconvincing, yet the result delivered the team’s first World Cup win.