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By Joe Apu
Reigning FIBA Women’s AfroBasket champions, Nigeria will begin defence of her title in from July 28 to August 6 in Angola.
Nigeria head to Kigali as the three-time defending champions, Mali finished runners-up two years ago and Cameroon finished in third place.
The defending champions are logged in Group D alongside Egypt and Democratic Republic of Congo.
According to fiba.basketball, the groups for the 2023 FIBA Women’s AfroBasket were confirmed during a draw ceremony on Friday in Maputo, venue of the ongoing 18th FIBA Africa General Assembly.
The 12-nation tournament will be staged at BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda.
Teams were divided into four groups of three each with tournament hosts Rwanda drawn in Group A. In Group B are Cameroon, Mozambique and a wild card team while Group C have Mali, Senegal and Uganda.
As of Friday, June 9, ten countries had their places confirmed in the 12-nation showpiece.
The remaining two slots will be determined at a later date.
FIBA Africa will attribute one wildcard while the last ticket will be determined through a qualifier involving one team from Zone 2 and teams from Zone 3.
The wildcard team will be added to Group B while the representative from Zones 2 (Guinea) and 3 will play in Group A alongside hosts Rwanda and Angola.
In the first phase, each team will take on the two (2) opponents in its respective group in one-leg game.
The winners of each group will advance directly to the Quarter-Finals.
But the end of the Group Phase won’t be the end of the road for the remaining eight teams. The teams that finish second and third in their respective groups will cross with teams from opposing groups for the remaining four places for the Quarter-Finals.
The winners of the Quarter-Final advance to Semi-Finals, while the losers will play the Classification Round games for the 5th to 8th Places.
