Nigeria’s D’Tigress End World Cup Winless After Heaviest-Ever Defeat

Nigeria’s D’Tigress crashed out of the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup on Monday, suffering a record 111-56 defeat to France in their final Group B game in Berlin.

France raced into a 31-13 lead after the first quarter and were ahead 65-26 at halftime, cruising to their biggest win of the tournament and confirming Nigeria’s exit without a single victory.

The result completed a winless campaign for the reigning five-time African champions, who also lost 81-99 to South Korea and 67-71 to Hungary earlier in the competition. Nigeria’s elimination was already confirmed before the France game, after Hungary’s win over South Korea closed off any path to the knockout stage.

The defeat marks a sharp contrast to D’Tigress’ recent history on the continental and Olympic stage. The team arrived in Berlin as Africa’s dominant women’s basketball side and had made history at the Paris 2024 Olympics as the first African team to reach the women’s basketball quarter-finals. Their performance in Germany, however, raises fresh questions about the squad’s ability to translate continental dominance into results against the world’s top-ranked teams.

Nigeria Basketball Federation officials and team management have not yet issued a statement on the outcome or on the technical review that is likely to follow a tournament of this nature.

D’Tigress will now turn attention to their qualification schedule for the next major continental and Olympic cycles, where they will be expected to defend their status as Africa’s leading women’s basketball nation.