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.
They took the fight to their Nigerian counterparts from the onset of the game, winning 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.
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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 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 half-time 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 game – 19 points, while Sean Mwesigwa added 12 points.
Rwanda still have to play a classification game for the 5th to 8th positions.
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