Nigeria Undefeated In FIBA Afrobasket 2021 Qualifiers

Image via @AfroBasket Twitter

The Nigeria Men National Team continues to showcase their dominance with today’s win over Mali 76-56 in the final match of the FIBA AfroBasket 2021 Qualifiers. Nigeria went 6-0 during the Qualifiers by an average winning margin of seventeen points per game. Nigeria will be the favorites heading into the FIBA AfroBasket 2021 Championship taking place later this year in Kigali, Rwanda.

Josh Okogie Will Play For Nigeria In FIBA World Cup

Via Josh Okogie Twitter

Josh Okogie took to Twitter today to announce that he will suit up for the Nigeria National Basketball Team in the upcoming 2019 FIBA World Cup. The tournament begins on August 31st in China. Okogie had an up and down rookie season with the Minnesota Timberwolves, but I liked his decision to play for the Nigeria national team for several reasons.

Continue reading

Basketball Africa League Announced for 2020

Image via @NBA Twitter

During the 6th annual NBA Africa All Star Luncheon in Charlotte, the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) announced the plan to launch the Basketball Africa League (BAL) in 2020. The Basketball Africa League will consist of 12 club teams across the continent of Africa set to begin play in January 2020. The NBA and FIBA will conduct qualifying tournaments later this year to make selections for the 12 teams. The BAL will consist of teams representing the following countries: Angola, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia (no more than two teams from the same country will be able to qualify).

Continue reading

Nigeria Run Comes To End at the FIBA World Cup

TeamUSANaijaimage

In the Quarterfinals matchup yesterday, the USA defeated Nigeria 71-40. Nigeria led after the first quarter 17-9, but the D’Tigress couldn’t withstand the star power on the dominant Team USA squad. Ezinne Josephine Kalue was the top performer for the D’Tigress with 8 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists, & 5 steals. Nneka Ogwumike had 6 points and 3 rebounds for Team USA.

Despite the loss, this team has nothing to be ashamed of. They made history during this tournament and showed the world that Nigeria basketball (men & women) is here to stay for a long time. During this tournament Nigeria became the first African country to have three victories in a World Cup and the first African country to reach the World Cup Quarterfinals (for women African teams). The D’Tigress are just getting started.

Nneka Ogwumike Is Excited About Upcoming Nigeria vs USA Matchup

Nneka_IMG_8079

On Friday, the Nigeria will face the USA in the Quarterfinals of the 2018 FIBA Women Basketball World Cup. For Nneka Ogwumike this will be a bittersweet game. Nneka is Nigerian, but she is playing for Team USA in this tournament. Here is her tweet about the game below:

I love how Nneka & her sister Chiney continue to embrace their Nigerian culture and are great role models young girls growing up. As Nneka stated this game shows everyone how much the game of basketball has grown in Nigeria. There’s so much talent in Nigeria and this will only be the beginning to matchups between Nigeria and the USA. Although, I want to see Nneka do well tomorrow, I’m rooting for Nigeria to pull off the upset.

Nigeria Advances to the Quarterfinals

image_naija

The D’Tigress survive a close game versus Greece in the Quarter Final Qualification round today. Nigeria defeated Greece 57-56 to advance to the Quarterfinals in the 2018 FIBA Women Basketball World Cup. Evelyn Akhator was the top performer with 14 points, 13 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 steals, & 1 block. Nigeria was down 1 with :03 seconds left in the game. However, Elo Edema Edeferioka was able to draw a foul and made both free throws to give the D’Tigress the lead. Check out the highlights here:

Nigeria will take on the USA Friday September 28th in the Quarterfinals. This will be a great match.