FIBA 2025 Women’s Afrobasket: D’Tigress Gets ‘Tricky’ Group

The Nigerian Women’s Basketball Team, D’Tigress, have been drawn in Group D in the 2025 FIBA Women’s Afrobasket and will face Mozambique and Rwanda in their pursuit to retain the title, having won the last edition in 2023.

The 12-nation Women’s AfroBasket will be hosted in Abidjan, Ivory Coast for the first time and will run from Friday, July 25 to Sunday, August 3.

D’Tigress have won the Women’s Afrobasket Championship four times in a row and six times in total. They won in 2017 at Bamako, Mali, 2019 at Dakar, Senegal, 2021 at Yaounde, Cameroon, and 2023 at Kigali, Rwanda.

Coach of D’Tigress, Rena Wakama(32) became the first female coach to win an Afrobasket championship after just one year in charge.

While this group might seem like a walk in the park on the surface for the defending champions, both Mozambique and Rwanda have made great progress in recent years, as you will find in this article.

Mozambique Women’s National Basketball Team.

The Mozambique National Team is coached by Carlos Aik. They have made 18 appearances in the Afrobasket, winning Silver in 1986, 2003 and 2013 and Bronze in 1990, 1993 and 2005.

Nigeria and Mozambique met in the 2023 Afrobasket quarter-final, and Nigeria had to come back from a 14-point deficit to defeat them 59-52 and set up a Semifinal clash with fellow group member, Rwanda.

Rwanda Women’s National Basketball Team.

The Rwandan National Team is coached by Coach Cheikh Sarr. They have made the least appearances in Group D, with four, but have made the most of their involvement, finishing ninth in 2009 and 2011, and going on to better that position by five places, coming fourth in the last edition, just outside the podium.

The D’Tigress ended Rwanda’s campaign by defeating the side who were making their first-ever semi-finals showing, 79-48, to qualify for the final of the 2023 Women’s AfroBasket.

Here are the full 2025 Afrobasket Championship draws:

GROUP A:

Côte d’Ivoire, Angola and Egypt.

GROUP B:
Mali, Cameroon and South Sudan.

GROUP C:
Senegal, Uganda and Guinea.

GROUP D:
Nigeria, Mozambique and Rwanda.

The winners of each group automatically qualify for the quarter-finals while the second third-placed placed teams in each group will play a qualifying series for the quarter-finals with the winners advancing to the last eight.

D’Tigress, who have dominated African women’s basketball over the last decade, will be aiming for an unprecedented fifth consecutive title, having emerged champions in the 2017, 2019, and 2021 editions.