Nigeria's D'Tigress win fifth straight Women’s Afrobasket title

Nigeria’s women’s basketball team, D’Tigress, have been crowned champions of the 2025 FIBA Women’s Afrobasket after defeating Mali in the final.

The Rena Wakama-led side clinched the title on Sunday at the Palais des Sports de Treichville in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

With the win, Nigeria made history as the first country to win five consecutive Women’s Afrobasket championships, further cementing their dominance on the continent.

They also remain unbeaten in the tournament for a decade.

The last time D’Tigress lost an Afrobasket game was on October 2, 2015, against Cameroon.

Sunday’s final was a tale of two halves. Mali took a 26–21 lead at the end of the first quarter, but Nigeria fought back to level the scores at 41–41 by halftime.

A strong third quarter saw D’Tigress pull ahead, leading 61–56 by the buzzer.

In the final quarter, the Nigerian team stepped up defensively, limiting Mali to just eight points and sealing a 14-point victory.

The win follows a hard-fought semi-final against Senegal, where D’Tigress needed a spirited fourth-quarter performance to secure a narrow victory.

Coach Wakama now has two titles in two attempts, having led the team to victory in 2023 as the first woman to coach a team to Afrobasket glory.

Meanwhile, President Bola Tinubu has congratulated D’Tigress, for lifting their seventh African championship at the 2025 FIBA Women’s AfroBasket.

President Tinubu, according to a release issued by his Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, commended the skill, resilience, determination, and teamwork that propelled the team to the fifth consecutive title, and the seventh overall.

He praised the team’s determination to bring glory to the country despite losing the first quarter of the match.