AFCON 2025
Nigeria’s chances of qualifying for the FIBA World Cup next year has become slim following back to back-to-back losses in the first phase of the second window qualifiers.
The D’Tigers suffered back-to-back defeats to open the second round of the FIBA Basketball World Cup African Qualifiers, falling to Cameroon before losing a tight contest to South Sudan in Radès, Tunisia.
The trouble started on Thursday when D’Tigers went down 78-62 to Group E leaders Cameroon. Nigeria made a promising start, going 6-2 up early through Ike Nwamu and Josh Okogie, but Cameroon responded with a 13-0 run to close the first quarter 23-14 in their favour, a deficit David Fizdale’s side never fully recovered from.
Nigeria returned to action on Friday against South Sudan hoping to bounce back, and pushed the continent’s top-ranked side all the way before falling 82-79.
Nigeria led 46-43 at halftime after dominating the second quarter 27-13, with Josh Okogie their top scorer at that stage, but South Sudan’s Marial Shayok scored eight straight points to open the third quarter and swing momentum back in the Bright Stars’ favour.
Carlik Jones was instrumental for South Sudan throughout, finishing with a strong all-round display that helped his side close out the win, while Chimeze Metu led the fightback for Nigeria as D’Tigers refused to go away quietly.
The back-to-back losses leave D’Tigers with plenty of work to do in a highly competitive Group E, where results from the opening round carry over into the second phase. Nigeria will look to arrest the slide when they close out the qualifying window against Cape Verde on August 30 at the same venue in Radès.
With only the top two teams in each group, plus the best third-placed side across both pools, securing automatic qualification for the 2027 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Qatar, the result against Cape Verde now takes on added significance for Nigeria’s hopes of progressing to the final qualifying phase in February 2027.
