Nigeria’s senior men’s team, D’Tigers, will resume their quest to challenge for a second AfroBasket title when they take on the Teranga Lions of Senegal in a quarter-final clash on Wednesday (today) at the Pavilhao Multiusos de Luanda in Angola, Akelicious reports.
Nigeria will be looking to maintain their 100 per cent record at the ongoing tournament when they go to battle against their Francophone counterparts.
Coach Mohammed Abdulrahman’s side topped Group B with maximum six points to get into the last eight. They dismissed Madagascar 77-59 in their opening game, before easing past defending champions and three-time tournament winners Tunisia 87-66. The West Africans closed out the round-robin phase in style by beating Cameroon 99-90 to register a third win from three games.
“Our identity is to play good defence and then see if we can run and get quick and easy basket,” the coach said ahead of the clash.
“And we are very much aware that we are not the biggest team around. So we didn’t look at that as a disadvantage. We took it as an advantage. And we decided to be very quick on the floor and kind of just choke the opponent defensively and try to get some steals and then push the ball and run and get easy basket. That’s just our style.”
Meanwhile, the Teranga Lions began their 2025 AfroBasket campaign with an 88-53 victory over Uganda, but lost their second game 91-77 to North African side Egypt before saving face by overpowering Mali 80-70 in their last group fixture. Despite securing two wins from their three group games, it was not enough to hand them an automatic spot in the quarter-finals.
They had to go through a qualification for the quarter-final places, which saw them paired against South Sudan. The playoff fixture saw Senegal edge the South Sudanese side 78-65 to book a date with Nigeria.
Both Nigeria and Senegal share some history, having faced each other eight times previously, with the 2015 champions edging the stats by winning five games while Senegal have just three victories. Nigeria won their first meeting 80-65 in a preliminary round clash at the 2001 AfroBasket tournament, before beating them again 76-58 in the semi-finals at AfroBasket 2009.
The Lions then recorded a first victory over Nigeria at AfroBasket 2013, by winning 64-63 during the quarter-finals stages. Nigeria responded by easing past Senegal 88-79 and 76-71 during the semi-finals stages at both AfroBasket 2015 and 2017 respectively.
They met again in September 2018 during the qualification phase for the 2019 FIBA Men’s World Cup, with Nigeria claiming an 89-61 win. Senegal avenged that loss in February of 2019, by going ahead to claim an 84-63 victory also during qualification for the 2019 FIBA Men’s World Cup.
The last time both countries faced one another was at the FIBA Pre-Olympic Qualifying Tournament hosted in Lagos, Nigeria, and it was Senegal who pipped D’Tigers 93-87.
Nigeria will be counting on Houston Rockets guard Josh Okogie, as well as co-captains Ike Nwamu and veteran Stan Okoye, who remains the sole member left from Nigeria’s triumphant AfroBasket roster in 2015. Caleb Agada has been crucial for Nigeria, while the support cast have proven they have what it takes to do well when called upon.
As for Senegal, their biggest threat comes from the duo Jean Jacques Boissy and team captain Brancou Badio. The influential Badio scored 31 points in the win against South Sudan and could cause trouble for D’Tigers, while Ibrahim Faye poses a solid opposition at any given opportunity.
