Nigeria’s J’Tigress, Mali, hit U-18 Afrobasket semifinals

Nigeria’s J’Tigress have punched their way into the semifinals of the 2024 Afrobasket U-18 Women’s Championship in Pretoria, South Africa.

It was reported that the J’Tigress brushed aside their female counterparts from North Africa 66-51 on Wednesday night.

Nigeria won the first quarter 24-13 and maintained the lead as the teams went on halftime, with scores 37-23 for J’Tigress. Egypt’s efforts to get back into the game failed until the buzzer.

It was sensational comeback for Nigeria as this was second game against Egypt within one week. Egypt won that opening match 72-60 but, fell in the quarter-finals.

Meanwhile, Mali sent Rwanda packing in the quarterfinals.

Rwanda’s journey in the women’s Africa championship come to a shocking end as stumbled at University of Pretoria.

Mali won the first two quarters 19-11 and 25-15 respectively to lead the game with 44-26 at the break.

They continued from where they stopped in the half to dominate the second half, third quarter 21-20 and the final quarter 21-11 to successfully progress to the semifinals.

Rwanda’s Mama Sidiki Doumbia led the scores for Mali with 21 points while Oumou Koumare and Maimouna Traore added 16 and 14 points respectively.

Despite the loss, Brigitte Nibishaka still proved her worth, scoring 16 points while Vanessa Camara added 14 points.

The Nigerian girls will face Uganda in the second semi-final game on Friday while Cameroon and Mali will take on each other in the other game.

Rwanda still has to play a classification game for the 5th to 8th positions.

In the men’s category, Rwanda will be up against Cameroon in quarterfinals.

Rwanda and Mali, the only undefeated teams in the group phase, topped Groups A and C, with a 3-0 mark each.