D’Tigers defeat Cape Verde to qualify for Afrobasket 2025

Nigeria men’s basketball team D’Tigers qualified for the upcoming AfroBasket tournament after sealing passage with a 77-62 victory over Cap Verde on Sunday.

The team made it three consecutive victories to end the qualifying series as one of the three best nations in Group B after starting the series with three straight defeats.

In their final group match played in the grand Hall Arena in Tripoli, Libya, D’Tigers bested the Cape Verdeans with wide margins in the second and fourth quarters to seal a 15-point win.

Caleb Agada led the team with 23 points and six assists in the pulsating encounter. The Canada-based point guard also weighed in with a game-high five assists, while Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu also had the highest rebounds — nine.

D’Tigers completed 48.6% of their field goals and 71.4% of free throws as they led the game for more than half of the encounter.

Nigeria opened up a 21-15 lead with two minutes left in the first quarter but Cape Verde overturned the deficit to steal the quarter 26-22 in the final minute.

The undeterred Tigers roared back in the second quarter where they allowed their opponent only seven points for a 48-33 lead at halftime.

The Alan Major-led side conserved their energy in the third quarter before repeating the trick in the fourth quarter where they restricted Cape Verde to eight points for the eventual 77-62 scoreline.

Victory means D’Tigers finished the group with nine points, level with table-topping Cape Verde, and enough to ensure one of Uganda and Libya would fight for the last qualifying slot in the group in their final match.

Qualification means Nigeria would be making its 14th-consecutive appearance at the tournament the country has won once — in 2015.

The 2025 edition of the AfroBasket, men’s premier continental basketball tournament, is set to be hosted by Angola for the fourth time from August 12 to 24.