July 03, (THEWILL) – Nigeria and Guinea have been granted wildcard entries to two prestigious FIBA Africa tournaments, as announced by FIBA Africa on Monday.
Nigeria will participate in the FIBA AfroCan for the second consecutive time, while Guinea will make their fourth appearance at the Women’s AfroBasket since 2015. The FIBA AfroCan, a quadrennial national team competition for African-based players, except for two, was first held in Bamako, Mali, in 2019.
The upcoming 2023 AfroCan is scheduled to take place in Luanda, Angola, from July 8-16. Simultaneously, the 2023 Women’s AfroBasket, a biennial FIBA Africa national team event, is set to run from July 28 to August 6 at the BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda.
Nigeria’s qualification for the event was secured after their performance in the Zone 2+3 Qualifier held in Abidjan over the weekend. Despite losing their opening match against Guinea with a narrow margin of 65-62, Nigeria bounced back with a convincing 78-51 victory over Benin on Saturday. However, they lost 74-65 to the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire on Sunday, at the Palais de Sports Treichville in Abidjan. As a result, Nigeria, with a 1-2 record, will complete Group B in this year’s AfroCan, alongside hosts Angola and Mali.
Meanwhile, Guinea faced disappointment in the two-game Qualifiers in Abidjan, suffering a 179-101 aggregate loss to Cote d’Ivoire. Nevertheless, they have earned a place in the 12-nation Women’s AfroBasket and will confront Angola, hosts Rwanda, and others in Group A.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
