Nigeria’s women’s basketball team, D’Tigress, have retained their position as Africa’s highest-ranked side, remaining eighth in the latest FIBA Women’s World Rankings.
The rankings, released following the conclusion of the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup qualifying tournaments, place Nigeria among the world’s top teams with 700.3 points. They are the only African side in the global top 10.
D’Tigress were active during the qualifying window, recording a series of mixed results against strong international opposition.
They opened with a dominant win over Colombia before suffering defeat to South Korea. Nigeria responded with a high-scoring victory against the Philippines but ended the campaign with losses to France and Germany.
CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE ATHLETIC NG WHATSAPP CHANNEL NOW!
Despite those setbacks, their overall performance was enough to maintain their global standing.
The United States women’s national basketball team remain top of the rankings after an unbeaten run, while France women’s national basketball team climbed to second place, pushing Australia women’s national basketball team down to third.
China women’s national basketball team and Belgium women’s national basketball team held fourth and fifth respectively, while Spain and Canada remained sixth and seventh.
Nigeria stay eighth, with Brazil women’s national basketball team ninth and Japan women’s national basketball team returning to the top 10 in tenth place.
READ ALSO:hosts-nigeria-dominate-as-rwanda-set-record-at-womens-cricket-invitational
Within Africa, Nigeria continue to lead the way by a significant margin.Mali women’s national basketball team are the next highest-ranked African side in 18th, followed by Senegal women’s national basketball team in 22nd. Mozambique and Cameroon also feature further down the rankings.
The updated rankings will be used to determine seedings for the World Cup draw scheduled for April.
