NIGERIA’S senior men’s national basketball team, D’Tigers closed the decide your destiny window of the 2025 Afrobasket Qualifiers with another sterling outing on Sunday against Cape Verde to make it 3-0.
Caleb Agada, Talib Zanna and Ike Nwamu were the star performers in the 77-62 win over their West African friends who stunned them in the first window last year in Monastir, Tunisia.
Agada recorded 23 points, 13 for Zanna and Nwamu made 11 points, 7 short of his mark against Uganda.
The two home base players who travelled with the team, Ifeanyi Koko Jr and Ibe Agu were in action on Sunday.
On the other hand, Shane Da Rosa with 10 points and Ivan Almeida hit 15. Patrick Lima, Patrick Spencer and Kennedy Gomes Fernandes all made 8 points each but that could not save them the roaring Tigers from with royal green and energetic white.
The victory over Cape Verde means D’Tigers, under the leadership of Abdulrahman Mohammed, took all three games in style while Cape Verde which had 3-0 in the first window ended the final window 0-3.
Already, the final lineup for the 2025 Afrobasket Championship is complete.
They include the host and eleven-time African champions Angola, Egypt and Senegal with five diadems each, three-time winners Tunisia and Cote D’Ivoire that has two titles to their name will be in the finals later this year.
Nigeria – the 2015 champions came from 0-3 in the first Qualifying Window to seal their journey to the Angolan capital with some tantalizing, scintillating and mesmerizing performances against Libya, Uganda and Cape Verde.
Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda are the flag bearers from East Africa. Rwanda punched their ticket to the finals with an 81-71 win over hapless Gabon on the final day of qualifiers.
Similarly, Guinea joined the big slammers heading to Angola with a 13-point margin victory over Kenya that missed their first game of the final window against Tunisia because of flight difficulties.
Shannon Evans and Ousmane Drame were unstoppable as Guinea picked a crucial victory over Kenya to book their ticket to the August 2025 AfroBasket.
Both sides came into the clash needing a win to qualify, and coach Nedeljko Asceric’s men proved the better side, picking a 57-44 victory that took them to their third AfroBasket in a row.
Evans and Drame scored 20 and 19 respectively, the latter completing his double-double with 10 rebounds in just over 31 minutes. Guinea finished third on eight points, two more than Kenya Morans who forfeited their opening match of the final qualifying window, against defending champions, Tunisia.
Madagascar, Mali, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cape Verde and Libya complete the lineup for what promises to be an exciting, eventful, grappling and equally gruelling showpiece.
Former winners Central African Republic and Morocco could not make it to Angola from Group D and A.
A close look at the finalists indicates that West Africa accounts for six teams in the competition. Three from North and East Africa each, two each from the Central and Southern tip of Africa.
THE SPREAD:
West – 6 Countries
★ Cape Verde
★ Cote D’Ivoire – 2 time champions
★ Guinea
★ Mali
★ Nigeria – 1 title
★ Senegal – 5-time winners
East – 3 Countries
★ Rwanda
★ South Sudan
★ Uganda
North – 3 Countries
★ Egypt – 5-time winners
★ Libya
★ Tunisia – 3-time winners
Central – 2 Countries
★ Cameroon
★ Democratic Republic of Congo
South – 2 Countries
★ Angola – Host and 11-time winners
★ Madagascar
FIBA Men’s AfroBasket 2025 will be the 31st edition of Africa’s most prestigious continental men’s basketball championship.
The tournament will take place in Luanda, the Angolan capital between the 12th and 24th of August, 2025, for the fourth time after they hosted the event in 1989, 1999 and 2007.
Tunisia won the last two editions of the tournament in 2017 on home soil before lifting their third AfroBasket trophy in 2021 in Kigali, Rwanda.
Eighteen-Eleven Media