Nigeria’s Under-18 Men’s Basketball team, the J’Tigers, are out of the 2024 Afrobasket U-18 Championship, following their 81-70 loss to Mali in the quarterfinals on Thursday night.
The Malians, who took the fight to their Nigerian counterparts from the onset of the game, won the first quarter 23-19 and led through the break at 40-38.
All efforts by the J’Tigers to take control failed as Mali eventually won the game, which was played in Pretoria, South Africa.
The winners and runners-up of the championship will qualify for the FIBA World Championship billed for Switzerland.
Meanwhile, the J’Tigress got through to the semi-finals on Wednesday after beating Egypt 61-56 in their quarterfinals.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the result meant that the Nigerian ladies would now face Uganda in the semi-final stage on Friday night.
Also, the Rwanda Under-18 men’s national team bowed out of the FIBA AfroBasket 2024.
This was after their shock 53-67 quarterfinal loss at the hands of Cameroon at the University of Pretoria Gymnasium also on Thursday.
Rwanda started brightly, claiming the first quarter 16-14, before Cameroon upped their game and fought back to win the second quarter 22-16 to go into halftime with a 36-32 lead.
In the second half, Rwanda bounced back to win the third quarter 17-15, but Cameroon dominated the last quarter 16-4 to send them packing.
The result meant the Cameroonians progressed to the semifinals.
Despite struggling to shoot from the floor, Cameroon’s Amadou Seini scored a team-high 15 points and 23 rebounds, while Hermann Bel Daryl Bay contributed 15 points.
Rwanda’s Dylan Kayijuka poured in 19 points, while Sean Mwesigwa added 12 points.
Rwanda still has to play a classification game for the 5th to 8th positions.
NAN