By JOE APU
Unranked Nigeria Women’s U18 team will open the Group C campaign in the FIBA U18 Women’s AfroBasket Championship in South Africa against 20th World ranked team Egypt today.
The Nigeria team is at the Championship as the FIBA Africa Zone 3 champions and will be aiming to upset the Egyptians given their excellent performance at the Zonal qualifiers.
Egypt making their eight appearance in this tournament are eager to go all the way to the final to enable them be the the next FIBA U19 World Cup while Nigeria is only making a third appearance with the hope win this title for the first time.
Coach Juliana Akhere, a former national team point guard says her wards are ready to battle Egypt to a standstill to prove their readiness for a title shot. “We’re taking every game as it comes,” was her response to the question of her team’s readiness.
After this encounter against Egypt, the Nigeria women play their second game on Thursday against Zimbabwe and round-off the group stage against Uganda on Sunday morning.
Nigeria’s two other appearances at this level were in 2008 with a 4th place finish and 2010 earning a silver medal.
The U18 Women’s AfroBasket 2024 will take place at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.
Reigning champions Mali have won the title eight times and remains the team to beat as they look to book a place in the final which guarantees one a ticket to the the prestigious FIBA U19 Women’s Basketball World Cup 2025 in Czechia.
There are 12 teams divided into three (3) groups (A, B and C) of four (4) teams each. The top two in each group and the two (2) best third-placed teams in the Group Phase will qualify for the knockout stages.
The field has five debutants, including the hosts. The others are Cameroon, Morocco, Zambia and Zimbabwe who were extended an invite by FIBA Africa via a wild card.