By David Ngobua with agency report
Former African champions, D’Tigers finished the latest qualifying window on Sunday, July 5, without defeat after walloping Rwanda 106-62 points to secure a spot in the Second Round of the 2027 FIBA Basketball World Cup African qualifiers.
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Group C matches of the qualifiers featuring Nigeria, Guinea, Tunisia and Rwanda were hosted in Luanda, Angola.
In the Angolan capital, Nigeria caused an upset by beating high-flying group leaders Guinea 80-79 and Tunisia 84-81.
The D’Tigers’ dominant performance over Rwanda yesterday was the largest winning margin at that stage of the 2027 World Cup African Qualifiers campaign.
They overcame their 1–2 win–loss record from the first round of Group C, played in November, to advance to the second round of the qualifiers for the 12 teams with an encouraging 4–2 record.
More importantly, Nigeria went into the clash against Rwanda with a point differential of -14, but left with +30.
Teams moving on to the second round carry their points from the group stages, and each team will play six games in August and March 2027.
Caleb Agada and Ike Iroegbu sank three three-pointers in the first minute of the game, and Nigeria went on to lead by as many as 46 points.
“We spoke about it the day before the game. The point differential matters for the next round and coaches emphasised it a lot,” said Stan Okoye who contributed 13 points off the bench.
“We came out with a few different schematics defensively. Our guys did an incredible job limiting some of their better players from getting the type of looks that they normally get,” said Nigeria coach David Vanterpool.
Okoye was delighted with Nigeria’s campaign in Luanda. “Going home 3-0 feels amazing, but the job is not done,” said the 35-year-old forward who first donned the Nigeria jersey at the 2013 AfroBasket in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.
The MoraBanc Andorra star was one of the few players in the current roster who featured in the first three games in Tunisia in November when D’Tigers suffered two consecutive losses to Tunisia and Guinea, before barely scraping a single win against Rwanda.
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