- To play Senegal, Egypt, Guinea
Basketball pundits have urged the female national basketball team to prepare ahead of the
2017 FIBA Women’s Afrobasket championship billed for August 18 to 27 in Bamako, Mali.
The D’Tigress are to play against tough rivals and defending champions, Senegal, Egypt,
Guinea, Mozambique and the yet to be determined representative of Zone 4 in Group B for
the 2017 FIBA Women’s Afrobasket.
According to the official draw held in Bamako, Mali, teams drawn in Group A are host Mali,
Cameroon who hosted the last edition in 2015, Tunisia, Cote d’Ivoire and Angola. The last
spot in the group has been reserved for a wild card team.
The Nigerian ladies, who were bronze medalists in the 2015 edition, were incidentally in
the same group with Senegal who they beat but lost in the crucial semi final to Cameroon.
They, however, beat the 2013 champions, Angola to clinch the bronze.
FIBA stated that the 12-team competition will take place from August 18-27 at the Palais
des Sports Salamatou Maiga in Bamako. It also serves as a qualifier for the FIBA Women’s
Basketball World Cup 2018 holding in Spain.
The first phase will be played in a round-robin format, with every team taking on its five
opponents in its respective groups. The top four teams from each group will advance to the
second phase.
The tournament will be played in a knock-out format from the quarter finals onwards. The
third-place game and the final will be played on the last day of the competition, Sunday,
August 27.
The FIBA technical report for the 2015 edition stated that “if statistics are anything to
go by, then Nigeria were the better team in the competition (because they) scored more
points per game (76) than any other team, they averaged tournament-highs (48.9 rebounds
and 17 assists per game) and recorded the highest efficiency rate of 81.9.
The report, however, said that unlike Senegal, the Scott Nnaji’s team paid the price for
allowing Cameroon to come back in the semi-final after leading for most of the contest,
