D’Tigers Advance To Second Round After Walking over Mali in the FIBA World Cup Qualifiers
D’Tigers, the senior men’s national basketball team of Nigeria, defeated Mali to easily proceed to the second round of the FIBA African World Cup qualifiers.
D’Tigers advanced to the final qualification round despite dropping their opening match of the third qualifying window to Cape Verde because Mali missed their second group A match and gave Nigeria the points as a result. The Malians have now been disqualified under FIBA regulations after forfeiting twice.
With three victories from five games throughout their qualifying windows, Nigeria advanced before facing Uganda in their final group A matchup on July 3 at the BK arena in Kigali.
The top three teams from each group will move on to the 12-team Second Round in accordance with FIBA’s qualification rules. Here, they will form two groups of six teams with three additional nations. All teams’ first-round results will be carried over.
The top three teams from group C, which included Cote d’Ivoire, Angola, Guinea, and the Central African Republic, will be faced by Nigeria.
Each team will play the other new team in their group in the Second Round during the two tournaments held across the two event periods between August 2022 and February 2023.
The two best teams in each group, together with the best third-place team, will advance to the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup in the Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia after these additional six games per team.
