Nigeria’s national women’s basketball team became fan favorites at the 2024 Paris Olympics. After years of odds stacked against them, they defeated Australia and Canada to reach the quarterfinals. However, two years later at the World Cup, the D’Tigress’ run ended in the group stage, marking the lowest point of Rena Wakama’s tenure as head coach since she took over in 2023.
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“Nigeria are the first team to be eliminated from the 2026 Women’s Basketball World Cup after their 0-2 start to the tournament. It is the first time since 2006 that they won’t progress to the Quarterfinals,” basketball analyst Uche wrote on X.
The D’Tigress first qualified for the FIBA World Cup in 2006, but failed to qualify for the next two World Cups. However, Nigeria had a historic outing when they finally qualified in 2018 and reached the quarterfinal.
This was their third time participating in the FIBA WC, but Nigeria lost its first two games to surprising opponents. They suffered an 18-point defeat to Korea in their World Cup opener. In their second game in a back-to-back schedule, they suffered their second defeat (71-67) against Hungary.
It was a stunning defeat because it was Hungary’s first win at the World Cup in 28 years. Having lost against two of the easier sides in Group B, the only hope the D’Tigress had was an almost impossible outcome of the France-Korea matchup on Sunday, where they needed Korea to win to stay in the tournament.
Unfrotunately for the Nigerian women, the 2024 Olympics runner-up France dominated Korea 95-69, effectively ending the D’Tigress hopes of progressing.
France now leads the group with two wins in as many games. Of the four members in the group, both Korea and Hungary take the next two positions, and Nigeria the last, with no wins.
Even if Nigeria defeats France, it won’t make a difference. France has already won two matchups. Korea and Hungary have won one each. So even with a win, the African nation will already be behind Korea and Hungary in head-to-head matchups, giving them the last spot in the group according to the H2H rule.
Under the FIBA World Cup competition format, the winners of Groups A, B, C and D will face each other in the quarterfinals. Moreover, the teams finishing second and third in each group will face each other in a play-in round in the single-elimination format, which will decide the holders of the last eight places in the World Cup. Nigeria will exit the WC after their game against France on Monday.
According to reports by Leadership, the Nigerian team has apologized to their fans in light of the disappointing outcome.
The D’Tigress had started to make their mark on the international stage. They had big hopes for this FIBA World Cup as they had continued to dominate African basketball. In 2018, D’Tigress had a historic run as they became the first team from Africa to reach the quarterfinal of the FIBA World Cup.
The Nigerian team was returning to the World Cup after eight years. In 2022, despite qualifying for the World Cup, they couldn’t participate in the competition because then-president Muhammadu Buhari’s government withdrew the team from all basketball competitions and activities. Six weeks after announcing the ban, the government lifted the ban, but it was already too late. FIBA had allotted Nigeria’s place to Mali.
The Nigerian team arrived in Berlin to solidify their reputation and put themselves on the map after making headlines at the Paris Olympics. This proved to be a major setback for the team and forced them to restart their campaign. Rena Wakama is now under pressure to get her team ready for the 2028 Olympics qualifiers.